MINIĆ: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY PRESERVED SRPSKA’S SOVEREIGNTY AND ECONOMIC STRENGTH

PALE, OCTOBER 24 /SRNA/ - The National Assembly of Republika Srpska is a pillar of the preservation of Srpska as its legislative body and has made all the decisions through which Republika Srpska has preserved its sovereignty, economic strength, and everything else that matters, Republika Srpska Prime Minister Savo Minić said in Pale today.

Minić said that the best example of an attack on the National Assembly of Republika Srpska was the proceedings brought against President Milorad Dodik before the Court of BiH because he had signed a decree promulgating a law adopted by the National Assembly.

"Imagine what kind of an attack this is on the National Assembly and the institution of the president of the Republic, when there is not a single country anywhere in the world, nor a single social or political system, in which the president of a country is required by the Constitution to sign a decision adopted by the National Assembly and is then punished for doing so," Minić said at a news conference marking the 35th anniversary of the National Assembly.

The prime minister thanked all the members of parliament who served in the Assembly on October 24, 1991, and who were aware of the importance for Serbs to identify and unite their national community in the Assembly of the Serb People in BiH, as it was then called.

He said that all members of the National Assembly, as well as the presidents of Republika Srpska, had shouldered an enormous burden.

"They were all persecuted throughout that time. Sufficient evidence of this is the fact that we recently had a ruling by the Court of BiH that convicted Milorad Dodik, as president of Republika Srpska, in violation of all the laws in force in BiH, for signing a decree promulgating a law adopted by the National Assembly," Minić said.

He expressed his hope that sessions of the National Assembly would be conducted with dignity and that all members of parliament would represent the voice of the Serb people throughout Republika Srpska.

The National Assembly of Republika Srpska was established on October 24, 1991, in Sarajevo, initially under the name Assembly of the Serb People in BiH.

The decision to establish the Assembly was made by Serb members of parliament who had been elected to the Assembly of the then Socialist Republic of BiH in the multiparty elections held in the fall of 1990.

This legislative institution adopted historic decisions on the survival of the Serb people, the proclamation of Republika Srpska, and the adoption of its first Constitution.