Republic of Srpska President Holds Meeting with Chairs of Parliamentary Parties Belonging to Ruling Coalition in Republic of Srpska
The President of the Republic of Srpska, Željka Cvijanović, held a meeting today in the Palace of the Republic with the presidents of parliamentary parties that make up the ruling coalition in the Republic of Srpska.
The topic of the meeting was the appointment of the new High Representative in BiH and other current matters.
The Republic of Srpska President said that the Republic of Srpska cannot accept the way the new High Representative in BiH was appointed, and called upon the political parties to stand up to protect international law.
President Cvijanović stressed that the appointment of the new High Representative was not made in accordance with the provisions of the Dayton Peace Agreement, and that the international community was showing inconsistency.
The President of the Republic pointed out that this was an attempt to appoint a new High Representative illegally.
“We understand that Valentin Inzko has been here for years without any credibility, but that does not mean that procedures clearly provided for should be circumvented when choosing a new High Representative,” said the President of Srpska.
According to the President of the Republic, behind this controversial appointment is a group of Ambassadors congregated in what they call the Peace Implementation Council /PIC/.
“Based on international law and the Dayton Peace Agreement, today we have a state that consists of two Entities, and the Republic of Srpska wants to protect her interests and carry out all her responsibilities precisely on basis of the treaty that we agreed to, and not on the basis of what it has turned into in the meantime”, noted the president of Srpska.
The President of the Republic underlined that the view of all participants in today’s meeting is that the manner in which the new High Representative was appointed is absolutely inconsistent with what is provided for by the Dayton Agreement, namely the international act.
“It clearly states that the parties to the agreement should be the ones who determine the proposal, and that their decision should be confirmed with a relevant resolution in the UN Security Council. There is no mention of a group of ambassadors that meets and then illicitly proposes who the new High Representative should be,” emphasised President Cvijanović.
The President of the Republic pointed out that it was clear from the statements made yesterday by political representatives of Srpska that only one appointment of the High Representative was made in accordance with the envisaged procedures, and that all subsequent appointments were a big political game.
“And this now is another indicator of the international community’s inconsistency and hypocrisy, but it also shows that it essentially does not understand the real needs of this country and how to bolster internal dialogue” said President Cvijanović.
One of the orientation points for the participants of today’s meeting, according to the President of Srpska, are the conclusions of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska, which has repeatedly dealt with the matters of what is the European path, the Dayton Agreement and the High Representative and everything that Srpska faced in past years.
“This meant numerous impositions, abundant interventions by the international representative, as a rule of thumb, always to the detriment of the competences of the Republic of Srpska, to the damage of our constitutional powers, and again, in favour of creating the big mess that we came to live in BiH, where we trust each other less and less.” recalled the Republic of Srpska President.
According to the President of the Republic, the role of the international factor in BiH should be to facilitate certain processes and to be at the service of the domestic structures enable them to reach certain agreements within this country.
“If there were in fact a European path, today we would be discussing other matters, and not this illegal, outside of procedures appointment or attempt of appointing a new High Representative beyond what the Dayton Agreement provides for,” said the President of Srpska.
The President of the Republic of Srpska stated that she would invite representatives of political parties in the opposition to a meeting tomorrow, to hear their opinion on this matter.
“After that, I will evaluate whether there is a need to and whether we can discuss certain matters again in the joint format of the parties in government and opposition parties at the beginning of next week,” the President of the Republic asserted.
Today’s meeting was also attended by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska, Radovan Višković, the leaders of SNSD, Milorad Dodik, the Socialist Party, Petar Djokić, of Demos, Nedeljko Čubrilović, NDP Dragan Čavić, the People’s Party of Srpska, Darko Banjac, and the representative of the United Srpska, Siniša Vidović.
