DODIK: BILJANA PLAVŠIĆ - UNWAVERING FIGHTER FOR SERB PEOPLE AND SRPSKA

BANJA LUKA, OCTOBER 7 /SRNA/ - Former Republika Srpska President Biljana Plavšić will be remembered as an unwavering fighter for the Serbian people and Republika Srpska, President Milorad Dodik said today.

Speaking at a commemoration in Banja Luka, Dodik said that Plavšić gave others opportunities and sacrificed her comfortable life as an outstanding intellectual to engage in the political struggle for Republika Srpska.

He said that Biljana Plavšić was a politician and a good person, adding that it would be recorded that she was convicted even though she had committed no killings or organized anything.

"Plavšić fought for the Serb people, and her only criterion in politics was whether you fought hard enough for the Serb people. A particular political label was not important to her," Dodik said.

He said that, as President of Republika Srpska, Plavšić was unwavering when making decisions and when it came time to implement them.

"Plavšić knew what she was doing, and everything she did was aimed at giving Republika Srpska and the Serb people a chance in a hopeless time," Dodik stressed.

According to him, Plavšić assumed responsibility for Republika Srpska and its stability in the late 1990s.

"Republika Srpska was divided at the time, both physically and institutionally, and there was a threat of a brutal conflict that could have led to its disappearance. Plavšić then gave Republika Srpska a chance to break free from an international conspiracy," Dodik said.

He stressed that for 20 years he had remained on the front lines defending the same Republika Srpska that Biljana Plavšić envisioned and fought for.

"It is the duty of Republika Srpska's officials to remember those people, including Plavšić, who fought bravely and wholeheartedly under impossible circumstances for a political and historical cause - the giant known as the Serbian people and Republika Srpska," Dodik concluded.

Before the commemoration at Banski Dvor, the top officials of Republika Srpska signed the book of condolences.

Plavšić will be buried at 1:00 p.m. at Sveti Pantelija Cemetery with full honors.

Biljana Plavšić died in Belgrade on October 1 at the age of 96.

She was a Serbian politician, university professor and doctor of biological sciences, a member of the Republika Srpska National Assembly and the Serb member of the Presidency of the former Socialist Republic of BiH /SR BiH/.

In Republika Srpska, she was one of its two vice presidents until September 14, 1996, when, under pressure from the international community, Radovan Karadžić transferred presidential powers to her.

She was elected president of Republika Srpska in that year's elections.

She was formerly dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Sarajevo, a former official of the Serb Democratic Party, and former president of the Serb National Alliance.

Plavšić voluntarily surrendered to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague on January 10, 2001, after she had been indicted on April 7, 2000.

She was sentenced to 11 years in prison on February 27, 2003. On June 26, 2003, she was transferred from The Hague to Sweden to serve her sentence at Hinseberg Prison. She was released in late October 2009 after serving two-thirds of her sentence.

She lived a quiet life in Belgrade and stayed out of politics.