SRPSKA RESISTED ATTACKS AND PRESERVED ITS INSTITUTIONS

BANJA LUKA, FEBRUARY 11 /SRNA/ – Acting President of the Republika Srpska Ana Trišić-Babić stated that Srpska has recently resisted all attacks and preserved its institutions, although plans had been made for its abolition.

“A complete elimination of Republika Srpska was being prepared - its abolition and a very ugly scenario for Republika Srpska and its residents,” Trišić-Babić told RTRS. She assessed that the peak of the attacks on Srpska and efforts to strip it of all its competencies was the attempt to seize property that would no longer belong to Republika Srpska but to BiH. “That was when we draw a red line and said that nothing could do unless the situation in BiH is clarified, until Sarajevo finally acknowledges that the Republic is a constituent part and begins to act accordingly,” Trišić-Babić added. She denied official Sarajevo’s claims that Republika Srpska top officials’ visits to Israel and Hungary were paid for, stressing that they were the result of long-standing, carefully built and nurtured bilateral relations with those countries. “As for the United States, they operate on the principle of lobbying, it is permitted and regulated there,” Trišić-Babić explained, adding that officials from the Federation of BiH also have the right to engage in such practices but do not wish to. According to her, during the visit to the United States, nothing was requested from Republika Srpska representatives, nor did they promise anything. “For the first time, we had doors wide open and for the first time we were heard. We explained that we are not against the Dayton Peace Agreement, that we are not pursuing secessionist policies, that we fought for the Dayton Peace Agreement as it was written, which we were ultimately punished for,” Trišić-Babić stated. Speaking about relations at the level of BiH, Trišić-Babić assessed that official Sarajevo cut off dialogue with a plan to completely destabilize the SNSD, and that they experienced their greatest shock when sanctions against officials of Srpska and against Republika Srpska in general were lifted. “They most destabilized BiH with their behaviour, because Republika Srpska was prepared,” Trišić-Babić noted, stressing that we in BiH must sit down at the table and talk, regardless of who chooses which path, According to her, this year’s October general elections are crucial for all parties and peoples in BiH. Trišić-Babić said that she unexpectedly found herself in the position of acting president of Republika Srpska - at a difficult moment for Srpska and its president, and that she accepted this role out of great loyalty and concern for Republika Srpska.