President says Serb entity "suffers" in Bosnia

SOURCE: TANJUG
GRADIŠKA -- The Serb Republic (RS) is suffering "huge damage" because it is a part of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Serb entity's President Milorad Dodik has said.


 

(Tanjug, file)
The post 1992-95 war Bosnia is made up of the RS, and the Muslim (Bosniak)-Croat Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (FBiH).

Dodik warned the RS was harmed because "vitally important laws" could not be signed by anyone in the Federation, ever since that entity's president, Živko Budimir, was arrested last week on corruption charges.

He noted that an IMF project to stabilize public finances in Bosnia-Herzegovina was "being brought into question", because the Federation was "not functioning."

Dodik was addressing reporters in Gradiška, where ceremonies were held to mark 18 years since the expulsion of Serbs from Croatia during an attack on their areas in Slavonia known as Operation Flash.

According to the RS president, his entity was suffering "huge damage" for being a part of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He also said that the Office of the High Representative (OHR) should not "meddle" in internal issues of Bosnia-Herzegovina - "because they're the ones who messed up in the first place."

"This is proof that Bosnia-Herzegovina cannot exist. The OHR and international factors have, by forming the authorities in the FBiH, produced the biggest crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina after Dayton (peace accords)," Dodik concluded.