KARAN: CRIMINAL COMPLAINT FOR DESECRATING REPUBLIKA SRPSKA SYMBOL; BACKING BAN ON LILY FL AG UNDER WHICH SERBS WERE KILLED

BANJA LUKA, JUNE 26 /SRNA/ – Republika Srpska President Siniša Karan said that the burning of the Republika Srpska flag accompanied by wartime chants was a barbaric and uncivilized act of vandalism which, in addition to being contrary to the principles of coexistence and seriously damaging relations among the peoples of BiH, also contained elements of several criminal offenses under the Criminal Code of Republika Srpska, primarily public incitement to violence and hatred and violent conduct. "I am hereby filing a criminal complaint with the competent prosecutor's offices and the police and demanding that all perpetrators be identified and their responsibility established," Karan stressed in a statement to SRNA. He said the perpetrators' evident fanaticism in committing the act of vandalism sent a clear message to all Serbs in BiH. "The desecration of the Republika Srpska flag by taking it down and setting it on fire, accompanied by chants that give this disgraceful act an additional and deeply disturbing dimension, represents an unacceptable attack on one of Republika Srpska's most important symbols," Karan stressed. Three decades after the war, he added, those responsible were still not troubled by the wartime flag under which, he said, Serbs had been killed and the gravest crimes committed against the Serb population, while they were offended by the constitutional flag of Republika Srpska. Karan said that everything happening today was the result of actions directed against Republika Srpska over the past 30 years. "That is why I fully support the initiative to permanently ban the lily flag on the territory of Republika Srpska," Karan said. He added that the only proper solution was to strengthen the constitutional position of Republika Srpska within the state community, in which each entity has its own territory, institutions and population, as provided for in Annex Four of the Dayton Peace Accords.