RS and Serbia have right to decide on their status - Dodik

Serb Republic (RS) President Milorad Dodik say the Serb entity in Bosnia- Herzegovina and Serbia have the right to decide for themselves about their status.

SOURCE: BETA WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2017
 

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday in Banja Luka, he added that Serbs in this century should promote national unification where possible.

"Such a thing is not irregular or against anything," he said, speaking about the announced declaration of Serbia and the RS on joint activities aimed toward the survival of Serbs, recently discussed in Novi Sad with representatives of Serbs from the region.

He cited East and West Germany as an example, which united when historical conditions were created.

Dodik said that the announced declaration "does not bring into question any state or its territorial integrity", and that it contains no tendency to rearrange individual states.

Instead, he added, the declaration is questioning those policies whose goal is to "devastate the Serb national community and its rights."

Dodik announced that the parliaments of the RS and Serbian should vote on this document in November, in order to demonstrate that Serb national communities in some countries "have not been abandoned."

"In Croatia, the number of Serbs who live there is about 186,000, of whom only about 56,000 dare to say that they speak Serbian," the RS President said.

Speaking about the situation regarding Serbs in Montenegro, he said that "an identity genocide against the Serb national community" has been committed in that country, while Macedonia, as he said, is arresting a bishop who represents the Serbian Orthodox Church.

"In Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbs have their own state, but there are problems with its status, with aspirations toward its abolition. The 1991 census showed that over 157,000 Serbs lived in Sarajevo, and according to the last census there are only 1,333," Dodik said.

He added while the declaration does not strive to "reorganize states" it does strive to point out that a European convention allows Serbs in Slovenia status of a national minority, and the use of the (Serbian) Cyrillic alphabet in Croatia, where this is being systematically prohibited.

"We need to add Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, and see what challenges our national community faces in these states, and try to generate it all as our goal," the RS President stressed.