Dodik wants restoration of RS powers

Republic of Srpska (RS) Prime Minister Milorad Dodik has spoken to daily Vecernje Novosti about the return of the entity’s powers. “Today the RS is politically stable, economically oriented towards development, without many social pressures and with its own police force,” Dodik said. Dodik wants restoration of RS powers He reiterated that the RS was close to collapse two and a half years ago, politically and in every other sense, that calls for its dissolution could be heard on a daily basis, that there were threats that its police would be abolished, but that his party, the ruling Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), had succeeded in bringing about a transformation. The RS prime minister said that his party would emerge victorious from Sunday’s local elections in the RS and Bosnia-Herzegovina. He said that the behavior of the political parties in Sarajevo was “pure political Islam.” “Proponents of political Islam are the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), the Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, to a great extent, the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The political views in the Federation are being created by the most important man in the Islamic religious community, Mustafa Ceric. He openly declares that everyone who doesn’t like Bosnia-Herzegovina can leave, that the Bosniaks are the indigenous people, that their motherland is Turkey,” Dodik said. He said that Serbia had to reemphasize the fact that it was one of the guarantors of the Dayton Peace Accords that brought an end to the Bosnian civil war in 1995. “Unfortunately, we in the RS are left to our own devices, without a clear insight as to how Serbia will react to various issues. Thankfully we’ve found the inner strength to pursue our own authentic policies,” Dodik said. He added that he was not “calling on Serbia to interfere in issues in Bosnia-Herzegovinas, but that it is entitled to be more involved.” Milorad Dodik (FoNet, archive)

Dodik wants restoration of RS powers

He reiterated that the RS was close to collapse two and a half years ago, politically and in every other sense, that calls for its dissolution could be heard on a daily basis, that there were threats that its police would be abolished, but that his party, the ruling Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), had succeeded in bringing about a transformation.

The RS prime minister said that his party would emerge victorious from Sunday’s local elections in the RS and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

He said that the behavior of the political parties in Sarajevo was “pure political Islam.”

“Proponents of political Islam are the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), the Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, to a great extent, the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The political views in the Federation are being created by the most important man in the Islamic religious community, Mustafa Cerić. He openly declares that everyone who doesn’t like Bosnia-Herzegovina can leave, that the Bosniaks are the indigenous people, that their motherland is Turkey,” Dodik said.

He said that Serbia had to reemphasize the fact that it was one of the guarantors of the Dayton Peace Accords that brought an end to the Bosnian civil war in 1995.

“Unfortunately, we in the RS are left to our own devices, without a clear insight as to how Serbia will react to various issues. Thankfully we’ve found the inner strength to pursue our own authentic policies,” Dodik said.

He added that he was not “calling on Serbia to interfere in issues in Bosnia-Herzegovinas, but that it is entitled to be more involved.”