KOLJEVIĆ: FIRST CONSTITUTION CONFIRMED SERBS’ STATEHOOD AND COMMITMENT TO FREEDOM

BELGRADE, FEBRUARY 28 /SRNA/ - The historical, legal, and political significance of adopting the first Constitution of Republika Srpska is immeasurable and, above all, represents an expression of the collective aspiration of Serbs for freedom and the awareness of the people and their leaders of the importance of the state and its construction as a sacred goal, Republika Srpska Senator Bogdana Koljević told SRNA.

She emphasized that even 34 years ago, Serbs possessed all the fundamental prerogatives of statehood - a people, a territory, and a Constitution from which the entire institutional framework emerged, on the basis of which Republika Srpska became a Republic with its own president, parliament, government, and army. “Serb statehood was constituted precisely through the Constitution as a lasting commitment to a legal, national, and democratic order. Democratic, because equality of all peoples and citizens of Republika Srpska was established, and national and legal, because it became clear that there was no survival for Serbs without a state,” Koljević states. Serb statehood, Koljević stressed, was established with the adoption of the Constitution in peacetime, before any conflicts in BiH, and emerged as a historic choice of legality and legitimacy as the permanent foundation of Republika Srpska. She reminded that only Serbs in the geographical area of BiH had that level of constitutional awareness and their own Constitution. Koljević points out that the Muslim community had an invalid constitution of a non-existent state, while the Croat community did not have its own constitution. To what extent the 1992 Constitution reflected state-building capacity, she notes, is best demonstrated by the fact that it served as the basis at all negotiations, particularly in Geneva, whose importance was greatest because those talks later resulted in the Dayton Peace Accords. “The Constitution was the foundation on which Republika Srpska was recognized as a legal and political entity on the world stage, and as such was internationally affirmed and verified by the Dayton Peace Accords,” Koljević emphasized. The Assembly of the Serb People of BiH adopted the Constitution on February 28, 1992, which was unanimously adopted on the foundations of the founding Declaration and guaranteed full equality and equal rights of the peoples and citizens of the Republic. The highest legal act of Republika Srpska, which remains in force today with certain amendments, was adopted before the outbreak of the tragic conflicts and the unilateral declaration of BiH independence by Bosniaks and Croats following the referendum held on March 1, in which Serbs did not participate.