SPEECH OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SRPSKA ACADEMIC RAJKO KUZMANOVIĆ
ON THE OCCASION OF THE DAY OF THE REPUBLIC AND
PATRON SAINT`S DAY OF THE REPUBLIC OF SRPSKA,
THE FIRST MARTYR SAINT ARCHDEACON STEFAN

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear representatives of the highest bodies in the Republic of Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Your Excellencies,
Your Grace,
Reverend Fathers,
Dear Guests,

I would like to welcome you today, on the occasion of this historical event devoted to the 16th anniversary of the Day of the Republic and Patron Saint`s Day of the Republic of Srpska- The First Martyr Saint Archdeacon Stefan.

To those who celebrate Christmas, we congratulate and greet them with traditional message- PEACE FROM GOD-CHRIST IS BORN, INDEED HE IS BORN!

I would like to welcome you, as people of peace, tolerance and mutual respect to meet closer, to speak using the language of love towards friends and all people in general. We celebrate those great holidays in peace, joy and spiritual mood as they bind us to it.

Welcome to this important day, to the glory and honour of the Republic of Srpska that has been made by the will of Serbian people, on the bases of domestic and international law.

Welcome on the occasion of the Day of the Republic that obtained distinguished general and social, cultural and civil improvement and at the same time it opened perspectives and security for all those people who live in it, as well as conditions for faster economical and social development, general rebirth and stability.

I would like to extend a great welcome to all people, regardless of their faith and political determination- to magnify this 16th anniversary of birth, growth and continuation. We have passed through many golgothas while creating the Republic of Srpska and during that time its people were facing many domestic and international traps, unexpected changes and often bad surprises.

Welcome to forget, at least for a moment, the political crisis, non-established
international verdicts and different provocations, often accusations from different entities, many unjust decisions made by the High Representative, controversy and hesitation considering police and constitution reforms and other events and charges which we shall revise on some different place and on some other occasion.

Today, I emphasize for one more time- THE REPUBLIC OF SRPSKA FIRST, in which we know the way- of how and what to do according to reliable bases, clear and attainable programmes and mutual actions of their own bodies, institutions and citizens.

We would like to be motioned and led by love to our Republic, which does not represent hate for others and it means that our aim is welfare, safety and peace between all our citizens in the Republic of Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Led by such patriotic feeling for our entity, and on the occasion of its 16th birthday, we state that the Republic of Srpska has one permanent task: to keep the Dayton`s solutions of its constitutional status, territorial integrity and equality within Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Only by mutual respects, equality and partnership we can participate in the processes that enable one country to develop, to be filled with the truth and justice, and when vital interest and state of the entity and people stay secure.

Therefore, we accept only one status according to which the Republic of Srpska independently carries out its constitutional, executive, administrative and court functions, according to the Constitution.

Every attempt of creating some other social structure, especially without the Republic of Srpska is condemned to failure and it is an expression of illusory aspiration for establishing some impossible country or society.

We are responsible to our ancestors and descendants and we are also obliged to preserve and defend the Republic of Srpska. I am saying this with love, and love makes and it builds bridges even there where there are no bridges at all. I speak with decisiveness and readiness- to us as well as to everyone else in the world. We shall celebrate the Republic forever. No one should be afraid that he would be humiliated, discriminated or disrespected, because the Republic of Srpska is not and it will never be obstacle to anyone and especially to Bosnia and Herzegovina and its peoples.

At the same time, we decisively reject all kinds of unaccepted issues as well as underestimation of the Republic of Srpska, demands for abolition of its authorities and institutions. We also reject creating vague image that Bosnia and Herzegovina is the country in which there are good , peaceful and `democratic` people on the one hand and on the other there are bad, aggressive and `non-democratic` people.

Today I wish to invite all of you to mutual action and responsibility to stabilize politically the Republic of Srpska, to shape it constitutionally, to strengthen it effectively, sensibly and pragmatically, to balance it socially, educationally, culturally and spiritually embody it, to raise the youth and to provide their future on this area. Our historical and national identity and integrity we shall establish on ethics, justice and honesty, relying on modern flows and European values, standards and clear European signs.

The Republic of Srpska has its own territorial, demographic, historical, legal, economical, cultural and all the other conditions for survival and further growth as the community of all its peoples and citizens. This is the chance for us to come closer to each other, to recognize each other as people from the same roots and live according to the European motto- `unity in diversity`.

We shall be important for other people as much as we truly belong to our people, entity and country.

I am also addressing to our people in the world who are forced by good or bad occasion to be afar from us, that they have their home in the Republic of Srpska and that they should teach their descendants to never forget their homeland.

In the Republic of Srpska we build mutuality , mutual rapprochement and solidarity based on gratitude and obligations for preserving the memories and aid of all those people who gave up their lives in near and distant past, which were given for freedom of this nation and which are built into its basis.

Therefore let the Republic of Srpska live- constitutionally based on legal order, legal and just relations, human, civil, pro-European relations between man and man, man and society, society and its institution and man, and all of that according to human and social harmony, legal, property and general safety, financial, social and spiritual prosperity.

At the end, I would like to wish the nobility, kindness and success in life and work.

We swear to the Republic of Srpska that we shall preserve, develop and celebrate it this year as well as those years to come!

Banja Luka, January 8, 2008

Dr. Rajko Kuzmanović
President of the Republic of Srpska