KALINIĆ: EFFORTS TO FORM UNITARY BiH

PALE, NOVEMBER 25 /SRNA/ – The unilateral celebration of November 25 as the "Statehood Day" of BiH only confirms the belief that there is an ongoing effort to create, outside the framework of the Dayton Peace Accords, a so-called civic but essentially unitary BiH in which one majority people would be placed above the others, former Speaker of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska Dragan Kalinić told SRNA.

He stressed that for years the question has been raised as to whose holiday November 25 is, and on whose behalf it is being celebrated in the Federation of BiH /FBiH/.

"BiH has long ceased to be `neither Serb, nor Muslim, nor Croat,` as proclaimed at the ZAVNOBiH session in Mrkonjić Grad in 1943. It should be a country of all three peoples, even according to the Dayton Peace Accords," Kalinić stated.

He recalled 2018, when Željko Komšić and Šefik Džaferović ordered that the flag of Republika Srpska be removed from the shared premises of the BiH Presidency right before this date.

"In Republika Srpska, November 25 is an ordinary working day. And until the FBiH is prepared to adopt a law on joint holidays, it will remain that way," Kalinić said.

He noted that the FBiH also refused to jointly celebrate November 21, the day the war was halted in Dayton and peace was concluded.

"Let everyone celebrate their own holidays, but without insulting others," Kalinić said.

The former ZAVNOBiH Day, November 25, is observed as the so-called Statehood Day only in the part of the FBiH that is predominantly Bosniak-inhabited, while Croats do not mark it as a holiday.