Dodik: We will not allow Bosnia to recognize Kosovo

Source: Tanjug

BANJA LUKA -- President of the Serb Republic (RS) Milorad Dodik that no amount of pressure would force this Serb entity to allow Bosnia-Herzegovina to recognize Kosovo.

Milorad Dodik (Tanjug, file)

"We have survived the pressure although it was very strong," Dodik told Tanjug and noted that he himself was exposed to "enormous pressure in order for Bosnia to recognize Kosovo in the euphoria surrounding the acknowledgment of Kosovo's unilaterally declared independence."
"For Bosnia to recognize something, the RS position also has to be taken into account, and the RS does not and will not give its consent," he said.

Dodik also noted that the entity was "facing an absurd situation in which it is being accused by many for separating the RS (from Bosnia), while we are saying that we will not allow separatism in countries such as Serbia".

According to him, "Kosovo has been taken from Serbia" by a violent act of international factors and the international law was thus violated, while Serbia, all Serbs, were humiliated.

"Bosnia will not recognize Kosovo and no documents on slow or creeping recognition can be planted. We are following Serbia in this," said Dodik, noting that "those in Sarajevo" were irritated by that, but that the RS would do nothing, or give any contribution to any policy that is outside the bounds of Serbia's official policy.

RS president added that in the search for a solution, he personally would start with the fact that Kosovo, however important, must not entrap Serbia in the coming decades and the solution has to be a lasting one.

"Nobody mentioned that if Kosovo was reintegrated in Serbia's structure, (ethnic) Albanians would be brought back to the political system and form the most compact caucus in parliament, and would at the same time have the right to ask for one of the three most important offices on grounds of constitutionality which could be recognized in their case," Dodik was quoted as saying.

He went on to add that this would imply that "Albanian would have to be introduced in parliament as an official language".

Dodik believes that the approach according to which northern Kosovo has to remain a part of Serbia can yield results and added that he did not think that a multiethnic society cannot be set up in Kosovo.

He noted that he "does not believe Kosovo Albanians can establish a democratic society in which Serbs would feel comfortable":

"Even the foreigners who recognized Kosovo said that they did so because it is impossible to set up inter-ethnic cooperation between Serbs and Albanians. ed and noted that now that Serbs are a marginal minority in Kosovo, international community says that we must build a multiethnic Kosovo."

According to the RS leader, the international factor cannot expect Serbs, whether in Serbia or in the RS, to recognize Kosovo "in the manner in which they think it should be done".

He further believes that the problem if Kosovo "is no longer a problem of Serbia alone, because Serbs are united on this issue", but that it has in the meantime become a problem for those who hurried to recognize it as independent - "for which reason the EU has a crisis of unity on its hands today, making it impossible to establish a multilateral approach".

"The EU has more of a problem on how to solve this Kosovo issue, because Serbia has a clear stance on it, saying that Kosovo is a part of Serbia, and that's that," Dodik concluded.