In the first part of an interview for the Republika Srpska News Agency /SRNA/, Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik spoke about relations between Srpska and BiH, actions of international representatives and reasons for political conflicts in BiH.
Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik said that his life commitment is Srpska and not BiH, and warned that the idea of a strong BiH is the greatest fraud for everyone, including Bosniaks, who do not want coexistence but dominance in such a BiH.
“A strong BiH cannot be our concept, regardless of what foreigners might think. We want to destroy their perception of a strong BiH since it means a weak Republika Srpska or no Republika Srpska at all,” Dodik said. He said that BiH cannot be built this way and Bosniaks, before everyone else, must understand this if they want BiH. “They are making the same political-strategic mistake as the Serbs in the former Yugoslavia. Serbs felt that Yugoslavia naturally belonged to them since they were scattered around all former Republics as a constituent people. Serbs behaved like victors in the former Yugoslavia and the same thing is now happening with the Bosniaks, which is a great mistake,” Dodik said.
The Republika Srpska President said that foreigners are also bothered by his rejection of the idea of a strong BiH as they do not give up a concept of strengthening BiH. “A certain number of fake international operatives are still here, who came here with the concept of strengthening BiH and who do not give it up. Like with other things in life, it is always the issue of endurance. We do not have a reason to accept their failed ideas from the past. Everything they did in order to centralise BiH was wrong,” Dodik said.
According to him, the only thing they should have done, and which they have not done, was to implement the Dayton Agreement and not to destroy it. “They immediately started to destroy the Dayton Agreement and to upgrade BiH in keeping with their idea, in which we had to fit, and the one who did not fit was a bad guy or decadent. In this context, I am satisfied with the position of a bad guy. I am not committed to their ideas,” Dodik said. He noted that foreigners in BiH took over a significant portion of media by way of which they present their ideas and settle accounts with people. “They created the judiciary in order to settle accounts with those who do not accept their ideas, but think for themselves. Their idea is pernicious and does not reflect the reality, does not take into account our interest, and when you oppose all this, then, of course, you have a problem,” Dodik said.
He added that they were often telling him that they would cooperate with him only if he would want to commit more to BiH, but that his constitutional role as the Republika Srpska President is not to commit himself to BiH but to Republika Srpska. “I don’t believe in a concept of BiH. This angers them and then they say ‘we will not talk to Dodik’. I don’t care. I will not talk to them either. It’s easier for me to live when I do not speak with those who are proponents of the idea of a strong BiH,” the Republika Srpska President has said. He noted that this is why he often suffered pressures, sometimes direct and sometimes indirect, even by way of abuse of the system, by way of leasing certain media which are constantly demonising Milorad Dodik and the Republika Srpska government, for which they are paid. “We know it all, of course, and we are not annoyed. We have to fight it. As far as some direct pressure is concerned, this is not possible anymore,” Dodik told SRNA. The Republika Srpska President said that the problem of foreigners is that they became players in an internal political struggle. “You can see even today the arrogance of certain ambassadors who feel that they should decide and that we should only listen. Unfortunately, there are many politicians of my rank who accept such a role. I do not,” Dodik said. The Republika Srpska President said that there are many disagreements and divisions in BiH and that on such a foundation, just like on force, nothing can be built. “People said a long time ago – agreement builds a house, and disagreement is destroying it…You cannot love something from which you only get repression of all kinds. This does not mean only physical repression but also a mental repression which is coming from Sarajevo,” Dodik said. He said that in this regard, for Serbs, political Sarajevo represents a synonym of evil and danger.
“When we say that we do not love Sarajevo and that we love Srpska, this is all political truth which, if possible, should concentrate or accumulate in this people who is fed up with the past related to Sarajevo, who is fed up even with the present and even future related to this city, since everything we have there was placed by a decadent action,” Dodik said. Recalling that the 20th anniversary of the exodus of Sarajevo Serbs was marked last week, Dodik asked does anyone ask himself why almost 150,000 Serbs left Sarajevo, why people left and abandoned everything? “Was it, by chance, their caprice!? They left in Sarajevo billions of material goods. Did anything change in the mentality of the Bosniaks in this regard? No. This mentality of revenge is still alive among the Sarajevo political circle, and this is why it is very important that we know where we live,” Dodik said. Regarding the issue of a referendum and claims by the opposition that the current government in Srpska “spent the story of a referendum,” Dodik said that a referendum cannot be spent and that only those who do not think strategically can speak this way. “Referendum is a means against which nothing can be used since it is a civilisational category. Insisting on a referendum cannot be a spent idea. It can be spent only if you do not hold it,” Dodik said and added that in 2006, when he came to power, no one dared to even mention “R” of a referendum, and today Srpska has a law on referendum, which was adopted even though it was attacked from all sides. Dodik added that agreement of all political factors in society is needed for every referendum, but that the government in Srpska, when it comes to a referendum on the BiH Court and Prosecutor’s Office, for the time being does not have this agreement from the opposition.
“My perception of this issue is significantly different from their perception. Our decision on the referendum did not disappear and it only waits for the opposition to “become Serbs” and to finally start working in the interest of Republika Srpska, and it is in the interest of Srpska to abolish such a judiciary at the BiH level since it does not lead us anywhere except to a land of fear, land which would be additionally centralised and which would be a land without freedom. This is why this is important for all of us who live here,” Dodik said. The Republika Srpska President said that the opposition “for their narrow-mindedness and bad characters” turned the issue of a referendum into “some individual position.” “If someone had something to hide, he would have made deals with such a BiH Court and Prosecutor’s Office, and would not be in confrontation with them, like I am. In any case, I, unlike them, feel that it is in the interest of the Serbian people and Srpska to replace or reform this decadent judiciary at the BiH level and that our interest should be clearly incorporated in it,” Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik said in an interview for the SRNA. The second part of the interview President Milorad Dodik gave for SRNA will be published on Sunday, March 20.
Source: SRNA
