KOVAČEVIĆ: SRPSKA’S OFFER – RESTORE TO THE CONSTITUTION AND THE ORIGINAL DAYTON ACCORDS

SARAJEVO, FEBRUARY 12 /SRNA/ – Restoring to the original Dayton Peace Agreement and the Constitution is Republika Srpska’s offer to its partners in BiH, said Serb deputy to the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, Radovan Kovačević.

Kovačević has noted that Republika Srpska has been exposed to various types of attacks and that its rights have been constantly targeted. “We want the Dayton. Give us the Dayton and problem solved!” Kovačević said. According to him, the Republika Srpska authorities are ready for life in BiH to continue as it has, but only once everyone restores to what is written in the Constitution of BiH. “If one refuses to give us what the Constitution says is our right, then the one cannot claim the one respects us or wants any kind of relations with us,” Kovačević emphasized. He adds that BiH has appropriated a large number of Republika Srpska competencies, and that these all were imposed by former high representatives, who pressured political representatives to adopt them. According to him, every reform attempt in BiH meant a loss for Republika Srpska, in the sense that it involved attempts to make Srpska give something up. “For us, reform has meant a minus. It should not be a minus. In that sense, Republika Srpska has been constantly under attack. We have always been in a position of defending our constitutional status and position,” Kovačević stated. He stressed that it is known what the competencies of BiH are, and that the Constitution clearly states that those competencies not explicitly assigned to BiH belong to Republika Srpska and the Federation of BiH. According to him, Republika Srpska has had competencies seized in the areas of judiciary, defence, and indirect taxation. Kovačević recalled a decision of the Venice Commission, which stated that the process of transferring competencies in BiH must first involve a constitutional amendment, an agreement of the entities willing to transfer competencies to BiH, and only then the adoption of a law in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH. “Only then do you have legal armed forces, a prosecutor’s office, and a court,” Kovačević said, adding that Republika Srpska people have had the opportunity to see that the judiciary at the BiH level does not issue verdicts in accordance with justice, and that Serbs are its victims. He says this is even clearer when looking at the structure of the civil war victims, in which around 100,000 people were killed, more than 35,000 of whom are Serbs, 35 percent, while only two percent verdicts are for crimes committed against Serbs. He also referred to proceedings against Milorad Dodik before the Court of BiH during his term as Republika Srpska president, saying that he was tried under a law not in accordance with the constitutions of BiH and Republika Srpska, precisely because he respected the Constitution of Republika Srpska. Kovačević emphasized that in the civilized and democratic world, if someone respects the Constitution, they cannot be violating any law, because no law may be contrary to the Constitution. “Someone put him on trial based on amendments to a law imposed by an unappointed foreigner, while the Constitution of BiH states that only the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH can adopt and amend the Constitution,” Kovačević told Newsmax Balkans television, adding that someone took the right to overturn the will of the people who elected the president of the Republic and forced them to vote again. According to him, SNSD did not want that, but rather the opposition in Republika Srpska, while the people recognized this, therefore did not elect their candidate, but those who were ready to defend Republika Srpska, its rights, and the will of its people.