KARAN: SUPPORT FOR SERB MEMBER'S VETO, ATTEMPTS TO IMPOSE DOMINATION WILL NOT SUCCEED

BANJA LUKA, JUNE 30 /SRNA/ – Republika Srpska President Siniša Karan expressed full support for the veto invoked by the Serb member of the BiH Presidency, Željka Cvijanović, against an unconstitutional attempt to appoint members of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments.

In a statement to SRNA, Karan stressed that, like all federal states in the world, BiH rests on three key pillars: parity, consensus and the division of powers. "To ensure that no constituent people or entity can be outvoted, the Constitution of BiH establishes relations through parity /1:3/, meaning that no decision can be adopted in a way that allows one constituent people to outvote another. If that is technically attempted, there is the mechanism for protecting the vital national interest of the two holders of sovereignty, the constituent peoples and the entities," Karan emphasized. He stressed it is very important to strongly affirm the constitutional and legal position and role of the entity vital interest protection mechanism, noting that it serves as a protection against violations of the Constitution and BiH's constitutional order through outvoting, while ensuring equality among the constituent peoples and entities. Karan pointed out that the institutional response through the National Assembly of Republika Srpska clearly demonstrates who has the final say and that the entities are the key, primary and original holders of sovereignty in BiH. "The National Assembly is the final authority because it is there that the representatives of Republika Srpska, expressing the representative will of the people, articulate and protect it precisely through the mechanism for protection of the entity's vital national interest," the Republika Srpska President stated. According to Karan, this issue underscores the importance and necessity of Republika Srpska's efforts to uphold the letter of the Dayton Agreement, as Republika Srpska is defending the federal mechanisms that prevent any decision detrimental to the Serb people, while recognizing that the other constituent peoples have access to the same protective mechanisms. "We have an obligation to our people to use all constitutional and legal instruments available to defend Republika Srpska and Dayton BiH, and to make it clear that any attempt at domination is doomed to fail because it undermines the very essence and nature of the union of diversity on which Dayton BiH was founded," Karan said.