EVEN MORE DETERMINED FIGHT AHEAD TO DEFEND REPUBLIKA SRPSKA'S DAYTON-BASED POWERS

BANJA LUKA, OCTOBER 20 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska is entering a period of even stronger and more determined defence of its achievements and the powers it was granted under the Dayton Peace Agreement, President Milorad Dodik said.

Dodik stressed that Republika Srpska did not advocate a policy of separation, but rather respect for the Dayton Agreement as it was written.

"All forms of coercion that we have witnessed for more than 20 years through various shameful High Representatives must be reviewed. Those decisions that have not passed through the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH must be repealed. Only in this way can BiH gain a new lease on life," Dodik told reporters in Banja Luka.

He said that the Bosniak claim to ownership of BiH led nowhere and would only result in its breakup.

"There is no separatist movement in Republika Srpska, nor are there terrorist movements here, they exist elsewhere in BiH. Not a single Serb has been registered as a terrorist, but we know that many Bosniaks have returned from the Islamic State," Dodik said.

He noted that Bosniaks were merely using a media spin to portray Republika Srpska as pursuing a separatist policy.

"So, there is no separation," Dodik declared.

He said that BiH had always been unwanted, that Republika Srpska had sacrificed its major goal of becoming an independent state at Dayton, and that it had accepted the Dayton Agreement.

"However, we do not accept the desecration of the Dayton Agreement. We want to implement it as written, not as Muslims interpret it," Dodik stressed.

He said that the international community had spent years working to dismantle Republika Srpska and that the EU now needed to offer Republika Srpska a visible place on the European path if that path was to be accepted.

"They can activate this European path they have been pushing so far somewhere in the offices in Brussels. For us, that is an anti-Serb path, and we do not want it. Instead, we want a path that fully affirms Republika Srpska as an integral part of BiH, in which we have our own rights and obligations," Dodik said.

He added that Republika Srpska was bound by the will of its people, who had chosen clear policies of peace and stability.

"Republika Srpska is sacred, and working for its peace and security is the greatest contribution to its existence. The fact that they cannot withstand political debate with us is another matter. They have been spoiled by the international community, have no positions of their own, are at odds with one another, and are united only by hatred of Serbs. Their hatred does not bother me, but I do not want to hate anyone, I respect the Bosniak people," Dodik said.