RS president advocates partition of Kosovo

Source: Blic, Tanjug

BELGRADE -- Republic of Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik has stated that he advocates partition of Kosovo in “two states for two people”.

Milorad Dodik (Tanjug)

Dodik said that an international conference modeled after Dayton would be detrimental to Serbia’s interest because it would give an opportunity to various international factors to open up the issue of Sandžak and Vojvodina.
“Insisting on the partition of Kosovo in two states for two people, which is what I advocate, is the last line of defense of the Serbian national interests,” he told daily Blic.

However, Dodik added that the RS’ primary principle was to follow and back Serbia whatever it decided.

“Whatever Serbia’s position on Kosovo is, we will back it primarily in order to prevent Kosovo from being recognized by Bosnia-Herzegovina,” he was quoted as saying.

The RS president believes that northern Kosovo should be territorially incorporated into the Serbian territory and that Serbs south of the Ibar River who want to leave Kosovo should be provided housing and help for the making of new homes.

“We are even prepared to be a part of the process,” Dodik stressed and added that those who wanted to stay in Kosovo should continue to have protection of the state of Serbia.

Dodik believes that Kosovo will in a few months or a couple of years “de facto become independent thanks to the implementation of the Brussels’ policies”.

He said that the EU would eventually demand from Serbia to recognize Kosovo’s independence in order to join the EU.

“I think this story about Serbia and Europe is about giving nothing. They gave a candidate status without a date for the negotiations. What does that mean? Nothing. The accession negotiations are a serious thing,” the RS president said and assessed that “Europe will not want Serbia until a permanent solution for Kosovo is found”.