President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic commented yesterday at a press conference on the calls of the member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Denis Becirovic and Federal Police Minister Aljosa Campara to distance himself from the statements of Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik about the independence of entities within BiH.
At the press conference, Vucic was asked to comment on the statements of Becirovic and Campara, where Vucic was asked to rebel against Dodik’s statements.
“There are two reasons why they are attacking me”
“I tried to avoid this. There are two reasons why they are attacking me. One is that I cannot explain to Bosniaks in BiH that RS is their problem, but they always need a bigger problem, and that is Serbia. What did I say against BiH and its integrity? Nothing, never in the previous 20 years. But if you throw in Vucic, it’s immediately more serious and a bigger problem. They are immediately stronger and more important, they count on me to answer them, so they can think they achieved something,” said Vucic.
He commented on Becirovic and Campara in particular.
“I don’t even know who this second one (Campara) is, and this first one (Becirovic) I better not bring and show you what he writes in his books and what he says about Serbs,” he said.
Moreover, he told them that at any level of government, they should first agree on whether they want him to interfere in their internal relations in the state or not.
“Vucic, stop Dodik”
“How many times have they said that Serbia interferes in their internal affairs even when we say nothing? And now they ask me to interfere in their internal affairs. They say “Vucic, stop Dodik, you have to say this publicly”. So wait, people, do you want me to interfere or not? What do you want from me? You don’t even know what you want, but you all know that I’m right. Are you really that crazy to think that it’s my job to warn anyone about what they’re going to say or not, whether I agree with something or not? I keep silent about all the nonsense that you say every day, looking to preserve regional peace and stability in all ways. Just let me know next time whether or not you want me to interfere. When you make that decision at any level, then I’m ready to respect your decision. Just tell me what you want from Serbia,” said Vucic.
Vucic also commented on Serbia’s attitude towards Bosniaks, which he said was good in contrast to, as he claims, the attitude of the Bosniak leadership towards Serbia.
A good relationship with Bosniaks
“We have a good relationship with Bosniaks. We will put up with the fact that their leadership wants them to have bad relations with us, even though we want the best possible. Imagine me asking them, “How are you not ashamed to spread lies that I was shooting at Sarajevo with a sniper?” You’ve been lying for 10 years every day. You show me a picture with a tripod and say here he is with a rifle. How are you not ashamed to lie so much? If you don’t want good relations with Serbia, say you don’t, but don’t lie so much,” he said.
In the end, he once again concluded with a message that the politicians in BiH should come to an agreement regarding Serbia’s interference instead of complaining about the interference and asking for his intervention.
“Don’t ask me to interfere while you say I shouldn’t interfere, which doesn’t even occur to me,” he concluded.
