Serbs should create joint policy, RS president says

Source: Tanjug

BANJA LUKA -- Republic of Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik has said that a joint Serb policy for the region should be created.

Milorad Dodik (Tanjug, file)

He added that protection of Serb interests would be the topic of his meeting with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić in Banja Luka in September.
"A story has come up, that there are Montenegrin Serbs, Bosnian Serbs, Croatian Serbs and who knows what other types of Serbs. It is essentially one people - the Serbs. I am not a Bosnian Serb," Dodik told RTRS on Tuesday.

He stressed that the voice of RS had to be acknowledged in all international appearances by Bosnia-Herzegovina.

"RS has to have its say, otherwise Bosnia-Herzegovina cannot survive. If the policy of ignoring RS prevails, we have nothing to wait for here. These people have nothing to wait for," Dodik stated.

He described the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina as shackles when talking about Bosnia-Herzegovina's EU integration, explaining that RS was moving forward much faster.

According to Dodik, it is not relevant that member of the European Parliament Hannes Swoboda claimed there could not be two paths towards the EU.

Swoboda, a social democrat from Austria, said the ideas about separate paths for RS and the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina were pure fantasy that would never come true and did not contribute to progress.