Vucic: Love for RS does not mean hate for Bosnia

Vucic: Love for RS does not mean hate for Bosnia

“Serbia is always there for you,” Vucic said on Saturday, noting that under the Dayton Agreement, Serbia should protect the entity.

In his address at the central ceremony, the Serbian PM said that he had come to Banja Luka with a number of ministers to show respect and sincere support for RS citizens and the entity itself, noting that “it was created by people”.

“Serbia's love for RS does not mean hate for Bosnia-Herzegovina,” he said, noting that this love also implied the building of bridges toward Bosnia-Herzegovina so as to exchange capital, people, for a better life and successful shared future.

"Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats are tied together by destiny, we have lived together for centuries in the past and will live so in the future. We all lost in the wars and that is why today we say enough graves, others' and our, Serb graves. We want to build factories and respect our neighbors, sharing the good and bad with them," Vucic said.

Dodik vows to defend RS

RS President Milorad Dodik has said on the occasion of RS Day that no one will scrap the entity, that Banja Luka does not accept changes to the Dayton Agreement and the Constitution of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and that the EU path is not the only one it should advance along.

In relation to the decision denying RS the right to mark its day on January 9, Dodik said RS had not been established in a court dispute either.

“No one should try to abolish RS in any court proceedings. We declared RS in peace. Unfortunately, we defended it with our blood in the war, in which we had many victims, and we will defend it with all available means,” the RS president said at the central ceremony in Banja Luka.

The mission of RS officials is to protect the rights of their citizens, one of them being the right to have the RS, Dodik said.