DAYTON AGREEMENT IS THE ONLY POSSIBLE ONE IN THE CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH WE LIVE!

BANJA LUKA, MAY 21 /SRNA/ - The Dayton Peace Agreement is rational, achievable and the only possible agreement in the circumstances we live in, and it created the space in which every nation has its own place, identity and right to equality, said the President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik.

"The Dayton Agreement is not an ideal document. There are almost no ideal things in life. But it is rational, achievable and the only possible agreement in the circumstances we live in," Dodik emphasized in a speech in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska. SRNA publishes the speech in its entirety:

"In order to understand what are we defending, we need to come back to the agreement that established the Constitution of BiH, ended the war and brought peace.

The Dayton Agreement is not an ideal document. There are almost no ideal things in life. But it is rational, achievable and the only possible agreement in the circumstances we live in.

The Dayton saw history, heritage, mentality and relations that existed in BiH. It defined the system in which BiH can function as a community of two equal entities and three constituent peoples

The Dayton Agreement created a space in which every nation has its place, its identity and the right to equality.

The General Framework Agreement for Peace in BiH, with its 11 annexes, signed at Wright-Peterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, was not just a political document. It was and remains a constitutional and legal instrument, the basis, the foundation of BiH.

According to this agreement, BiH consists of two entities: Republika Srpska and Federation of BiH /FBiH/. Each entity has its own government, its own legal system and its own jurisdiction, the right to govern its people, territory and property - in peace. `Bosnia and Herzegovina` is derived from the territory of the entities: 49 percent of Republika Srpska and 51 percent of FBiH.

The agreement did not create a centralist, unitary state. It did not demand that we erase our differences. It gave us balance, not dominance. It gave us functioning, not fantasy. It gave us peace, not uniformity.

I invite those who doubt it to read Annexes one to ten. Read the Constitution of BiH, as it was adopted in Dayton. No interpretations. Not footnotes. The text itself.

There is no provision - none - that gives a foreign, unelected bureaucrat the right to criminalize dissent. There is no provision that allows state property to be confiscated by decree of that bureaucrat. There is no provision that reduces the Republika Srpska to a subordinate administrative unit. There is no provision that allows one party to impose solutions on another.

Dayton is a federalist-confederate treaty, not a colonial one. Dayton is pragmatic, not utopian. Dayton respected the right of peoples to govern themselves within BiH, not under it.

For this reason, we consider ourselves Dayton originalists. What we are witnessing today is the same ideological debate that is taking place all over the world about the constitution. Should it be interpreted as it was written or should it be treated as a `living document` that changes depending on the moment and the mood of foreign powers? We in the Republika Srpska only accept the text that we have signed."