On January 9th, 1992, in the hall of Sarajevo’s Holiday Inn hotel, war criminal Momcilo Krajisnik proclaimed the Republic of the Serbian People of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) by the decision of the assembly of the Serbian people in BiH. With this act, the Serbian leadership in BiH chose the path of dividing the country, which resulted in war, crimes and ultimately genocide.
Although very often in certain propaganda circles the war in BiH and the reaction of the Serbian population is blamed on the referendum on independence, it is evident that the Serbian leadership started the process of breaking up the state much earlier, which culminated in the war.
The parastatal institution of the assembly of the Serbian people in BiH was founded on October 24th, 1991, after the Memorandum on the Independence of BiH was passed on October 14th of the same year in the Assembly of BiH. On the same day, SDS president Radovan Karadzic, a war criminal, openly threatened the disappearance of the Bosniak people from the floor of the assembly.
Later, on November 9th and 10th, 1991, the assembly of the Serbian people held a plebiscite in which citizens of Serbian nationality were asked whether they agreed that the Serbian people should remain in the joint state of Yugoslavia with Serbia, Montenegro, the Serbian Autonomous Region (Oblast) – SAO Krajina, SAO Slavonija, Baranja and Zapadni Srijem, and others who are in favor of remaining. The majority voted yes.
On January 9th, 1992, under the pretext of the threat of the Serbian people in the future independent BiH, the assembly of the Serbian people in BiH held a session at which a decision was to be made on the declaration of a Serbian national parastate modeled on the Republic of Serbian Krajina, which was established in the occupied parts of Croatia in December in 1991.
The future president of the Republika Srpska (RS) and another in the series of those present convicted of war crimes, Biljana Plavsic, also addressed the audience.
“Not a single Serb who has even a little bit of honor in him dared to spit on the bones of millions of his ancestors, as well as today’s victims who fell for the common life of all Serbs in one state. Also, not a single Serb who cares at least a little about his national identity can agree to be assimilated into a nameless citizen in BiH,” stated Plavsic.
War criminal Radovan Karadzic had the longest speech at this session, in which he made several indirect threats to other peoples in BiH.
“As far as Yugoslavia is concerned, their will is theirs. We have our will and we can implement it. We have the means. There is no one who will declare an independent BiH further than the Kozija Cuprija. On the Pale, that is Yugoslavia,” Karadzic said.
Nikola Koljevic, a war crimes suspect who escaped justice by committing suicide in 1997, referred to the “historic injustices” committed against the Serbs in his presentation on January 9th.
“Speaking, as is the case today in Bosnia, and that is mostly speaking on behalf of the Serbs, that Bosnia is a better country for them than Yugoslavia, is not only undemocratic but also unpleasant. Who has the right to speak on behalf of another people and call it democracy!? Serbs, as you know, are old people and it is rude when the younger makes orders for the older. Why should the Serbs, the only people in this area, not have the right to gather if new states are already being created on the national principle? I really don’t see why,” Koljevic said then.
On January 10th, the BiH Presidency assessed that the declaration of the “Republic of the Serbian People of BiH is an unconstitutional act without legal consequences.” On March 1st, a referendum was held in which the majority of BiH citizens voted for an independent and sovereign state. Soon after that, on April 1st, 1992, with the entry of Arkan’s criminals into Bijeljina, the bloody war and aggression on BiH officially began, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
