Dodik's map: RS and Serbia united, Kosovo partitioned

RS President Milorad Dodik said in an interview with DW that a referendum on the independence of the (Serb) entity is currently not an institutional topic.

Dodik's map: RS and Serbia united, Kosovo partitioned

RS President Milorad Dodik said in an interview with DW that a referendum on the independence of the (Serb) entity is currently not an institutional topic.

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(EPA, file)

"A referendum is not on the agenda. No body, no institution in the RS has this on its agenda. There is speculation about it, there are partisan positions about this, opinions of individuals about it exist, undoubtedly, and it's not that it isn't a public topic, but it isn't an institutional topic," Dodik said in a conversation recorded in mid-October - i.e., before the region was stirred up by the Deutsche Welle (DW) interview with Bosniak member of the Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic.

At the same time Dodik argues that BiH is a failed state and notes that the Serbs are "not without an alternative."

"We are not adventurers as many present us to be. We are not stupid nationalists either. So I understand that in order to achieve such elements you have to create a political framework and a political environment, to create a sufficient quantum of practice in the surrounds and in Europe, and of course, for it to be at least partially accepted," Dodik said, adding that he is working "to create this political environment."

(Asked) whether a referendum on the independence of the RS will be held if the Dayton Agreement did not function as he thinks (it should), Dodik replied that he dreams about it.

"As soon as I have a permille of a chance, I would hold it," Dodik said.

Dodik also claims that BiH will not survive in any form.

Dodik said that the Dayton Agreement the way it was written, not how it has been changed, suits the Serbs.

"A Bosnia outside the Constitution does not suit us, a constitutional Bosnia suits us. But nobody will hear that," Dodik told DW.

(Reacting) to Izetbegovic's statement cited to him by journalists, that he (Izetbegovic) was ready for a war to preserve the integrity of BiH, Dodik said that Izetbegovic "has no power at all."

"We have a police force here that is numerically stronger and more willing and motivated. Secondly, any intervention in the RS from Sarajevo would definitely strengthen that kind of story. This is not Spain. "

The RS president directly links Kosovo's independence with the independence of the Republika Srpska (the Serb Republic): "I am not against Kosovo's independence. I in favor of a conversation between Belgrade and that (Kosovo - DW), and if Belgrade so decides I have nothing against it, but them my next question is why the Republika Srpska cannot do it. If there are rights for one side, then there must be rights for others as well."

Dodik says that the Republika Srpska is burdened by the fact that Serbia has remained in the policy of preserving (its) territorial integrity.

"If at that moment Serbia, when Kosovo separated, said it was ok, we would surely have already separated by now," he says.

At the end of the conversation, he drew a map of the Balkans the way he sees it - the RS and Serbia united, and Kosovo partitioned, with the north belonging to Serbia.