DODIK: USA, RUSSIA AND EUROPE SHOULD SUPPORT A PEACEFUL SPLIT FOR LONG-TERM STABILITY

BANJA LUKA, JUNE 12 /SRNA/ – SNSD President Milorad Dodik said that BiH is not functioning and that a peaceful separation would be the best solution for long-term stability, adding that such an outcome should be supported by the United States, Russia and Europe.

"If you look at history and the 30 years since the war, it is clear that BiH does not function. Croatia left Yugoslavia and created an independent state, so why do we not have that right"? Dodik asked. Dodik said that Serbs have no aspirations toward Sarajevo, but that Sarajevo has aspirations toward them. He noted that the Dayton Peace Accords envisioned only three functions at the joint level of BiH. "They centralized the country and built it outside the framework of Dayton. That is the point I was making when President Trump said he would stop building other nations. BiH should be one of them", Dodik said in a podcast with American journalist Lara Logan. He pointed out that the Constitutional Court of BiH still includes three foreign judges, which he said is completely unacceptable to Serbs. "Together with two Muslim judges, they form a majority among the nine judges of the Constitutional Court of BiH. They say that is normal, but it is not. Everyone knows it is not. What am I supposed to leave to my grandchildren? I have seven grandchildren. What am I leaving behind? Should I advise them to leave this country because Muslims will be the majority? No, because then my life would lose its meaning. I do not think Muslims should not be free here, but they should not be politically dominant. That is the problem. They can live freely. You have seen the mosque here in Banja Luka", Dodik said. Dodik argued that Serbs face far more difficulties in the Federation of BiH, particularly in areas where Muslims are the majority, adding that some Serb returnee villages still lack roads and electricity. "They are settling migrants from the Middle East in Serb villages in the Federation of BiH, which is governed by Muslims. These are mostly Muslim communities, while a small number of Serbs remain there and feel very uncomfortable", Dodik stated.