DODIK: CERIĆ'S CALL ON BOSNIAKS TO "SETTLE IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKA" IS AN ATTEMPT TO REALIZE WARTIME GOAL OF ACHIEVING A UNITARY BiH

BANJA LUKA, DECEMBER 29 /SRNA/ - The call by former religious leader of the Islamic Community in BiH Mustafa Cerić for Muslims to "settle in Republika Srpska" is neither a harmless message nor a religious appeal, but an open political message with a clear goal, to change the identity of Republika Srpska and undermine its constitutional and historical role, warned SNSD president Milorad Dodik.

"Republika Srpska is not anyone's colony, nor a space for other people's political projects. It is the result of the will of the endangered Serb people in what was then BiH and an internationally recognized constitutional category. Any attempt to present it as a `suitable` space for someone's ideological or national ambitions constitutes a direct attack on peace, stability, and interethnic relations," Dodik pointed out in a statement to SRNA. The SNSD leader said that it is particularly dangerous when such messages come from religious officials who, instead of engaging in political incitement, should contribute to easing tensions and respecting the existing Dayton order. "Demographic engineering has never brought anything good to this region, and the history of the Balkans has taught us that lesson many times, in a very hard and painful way. Republika Srpska respects freedom of movement, but it will not silently observe attempts at political and ideological reshaping under the guise of alleged `coexistence,` which was impossible for Muslims in the 1990s, when they expelled Serbs and Croats with the desire for BiH to be a Muslim state under Sharia law," Dodik emphasized. He added that this raises the logical question of where this sudden need for alleged "coexistence" comes from, and only on the territory of Republika Srpska. "After killing and expelling Serbs, they now want to `settle in Republika Srpska`. This message represents a moral low point and a political provocation because Efendi Cerić deliberately skips over the bloody truth: Serbs were killed, expelled, and ethnically cleansed from those areas, their homes burned, churches destroyed, and graves desecrated. Serbs in the Federation of BiH have been reduced to the level of a statistical error, and now, without a shred of remorse or responsibility, there comes a call for Republika Srpska to be treated as an open target for new political and demographic conquest. That is not coexistence. It is unprecedented audacity," Dodik stated. He said that Cerić's call is not religious but political and dangerous, and that Republika Srpska is not a space for demographic experiments, but a constitutional and historical fact that cannot be toyed with at will or used as an attempt to realize wartime goals in peacetime. "Republika Srpska did not come into being by accident or out of whim, nor is it an empty territory that someone can fill according to Sarajevo's ideological and national plans. It was created as a response to persecution, killings, and attempts to eradicate the Serb people west of the Drina. It was created as a response to crimes and threats that Cerić shamelessly ignores today. The fact that Serbs are now being asked to forget their loved ones, those expelled and their burned homes, in order to once again be neighbors with Muslims, says more about those making such demands than about Republika Srpska. Throughout history, we have had very bad experiences with our neighbors, both with their ancestors and their descendants," Dodik emphasized. He said that Cerić's call is not accidental - it is part of a long-standing project to demographically dilute, politically weaken, and ultimately erase Republika Srpska. "What is even more dangerous is that all of this is being done under the guise of religion. Anyone who uses faith to trample on other people's graves is not preaching God, but hatred and domination. Instead of repentance, we are met with provocation. Instead of peace, pressure. Instead of truth, insolence," the SNSD president stressed. He said that the Serb people will not allow a new demographic experiment to be carried out over their victims, bones, and suffering, nor will they agree to have their memory erased or a new political reality shaped over the bones of the dead. "Republika Srpska will remain what it is - constitutional and permanent, recognized in Dayton. Its victims will not be trampled on at someone's whim. This is not the first brutal insult to Serb mothers and their black headscarves; it is the implementation of the `Islamic Declaration,` whose author was the greatest criminal, Alija Izetbegović, who sacrificed peace to chase his unfulfilled dream of a unitary BiH," Dodik said. He emphasized that Republika Srpska is not anyone’s spoils of war, nor a space for completing what failed during the horrific 1990s. Cerić called on Bosniaks to purchase as many apartments as possible in Republika Srpska - in Banja Luka and Bijeljina, across all territories. "We are the ones who will safeguard the territorial integrity and sovereignty of BiH in a way that does not renounce a single inch of land," said the former head of the Islamic Community in BiH.