DODIK: NAME OF NEW HIGH REPRESENTATIVE LESS IMPORTANT THAN HIS CONDUCT

BANJA LUKA, MAY 29 /SRNA/ - SNSD President Milorad Dodik said regarding Italy's proposal for Antonio Zanardi Landi to become the new high representative in BiH that what matters to him is not the person's name, but how he would act in BiH.

"We are not interested in a copy of his predecessor Schmidt, nor of the others. He should have a limited mandate. The moment his mandate expires, in one year, that should mean the abolition of the position of high representative", Dodik stressed. Dodik said that, in the meantime, using certain powers, the new high representative should remove from the legal framework all unconstitutional and anti-Dayton elements introduced by his predecessors. "Any kind of intervention into new sectors and areas is unacceptable to us. He should be confirmed by the UN Security Council, and we believe that will happen. In that way, he would have additional legitimacy for that one-year period. If this turns out to be maneuvering by the Germans and the British, then he is unacceptable to us", Dodik told ATV. Dodik stated that the approach toward BiH must change and that this is no longer a matter of either his own wish for it to happen or Sarajevo's wish for it not to happen. He believes time has shown that the concept of foreign governance in BiH is unsustainable and must be changed, but that everything imposed by foreign representatives must not simply remain untouched and accepted as a given. "That is an issue that must be addressed. Our position is that the office of the high representative must be abolished", Dodik stressed. He said the high representatives had created disorder in BiH through their actions and turned it into a failed country incapable of functioning. "The Dayton model was fair. That does not mean BiH can function. The Muslims did not want a Dayton-based BiH, and now they will end up with no BiH at all. That is what awaits them. Whether it happens sooner or later, it will happen regardless", Dodik pointed out.