The American Embassy in Sarajevo said on Monday that the conclusions adopted by the All-Serbian Assembly regarding the Dayton Peace Agreement and the independent state of Bosnia and Herzegovina do not represent a defense of the agreement, as the authors claim, but are a deliberate attack on that agreement and state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“This is dangerous”, it is said in a statement that followed the joint meeting of the government of Serbia and that of the Republika Srpska, in what was called the “All-Serbian Assembly”, in which a statement was approved on what is said to be the protection of national and political rights and the common future of the Serbian people.
In the declaration of 49 points expected to be approved by the parliament of Serbia and that of the Serbian entity in Bosnia, the Resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica, which was approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations at the end of May, is opposed.
The text of the declaration opposes the appointment of the high international representative for Bosnia and condemns, as it says, any non-compliance with the Dayton Agreement and the transfer of responsibilities from the entity level to the central level.
“The All-Serbian Assembly considers that the Republic of Serbia can, to the extent it deems reasonable, activate all the powers that according to the Dayton Peace Agreement are foreseen as the subject’s powers”, the statement says, among other things.
“We in the Republika Srpska believe that Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot continue with Dayton’s violations and foreign intervention of immeasurable proportions. It is better to live as good neighbors, with our rights, as political and territorial subjects, than to be constantly fighting”, said the nationalist leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Milorad Dodik, during the proceedings of the Assembly.
In the reaction of the American embassy it is stated that “the public statements made by the officials of the Republika Srpska, especially its president Dodik and the chairman of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska regarding the conclusions and plans for the “separation” of the Republika Srpska, secession by another name , represent an attack on the Dayton Agreement and the territorial integrity, sovereignty and multi-ethnic character of Bosnia and Herzegovina”.
The full reaction of the American embassy in Sarajevo:
The conclusions adopted at the All-Serb Assembly as they relate to the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA) and the independent state of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are rooted in legal disinformation and riddled with error. They do not constitute a defense of the Dayton Peace Agreement, as the authors claim, but are a deliberate attack on that agreement and the state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is dangerous. The public statements made by Republika Srpska officials, especially RS President Dodik and Republika Srpska National Assembly Speaker Stevandic, about the conclusions and plans for RS “disassociation” – secession by another name – represent both an attack on the DPA and on the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and multiethnic character of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As the Dayton Peace Agreement and the BiH Constitution explicitly state, Bosnia and Herzegovina is the successor state of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina with its internal structure modified to consist of two entities. Neither the DPA, nor the BiH Constitution provide the entities, or any other sub-state body, with the right of secession, “disassociation,” or any other clumsy synonym for secession concocted by RS officials. The RS is not a state and can only exist within Bosnia and Herzegovina. It has no legal personality outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mr. Dodik’s plans and actions put at risk the peaceful,democratic, and prosperous future inside Euro-Atlantic institutions that the people of BiH, including the residents of the RS, want and deserve.
/Argumentum.al
