SRPSKA HAS INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTH AND ABILITY TO RESIST PRESSURE

BANJA LUKA, JULY 3 /SRNA/ – SNSD President Milorad Dodik said Republika Srpska has shown that it is capable of resisting pressure and that it has institutional strength, which it will demonstrate on Tuesday, July 7, at a special session of the National Assembly on the veto of Serb member of the BiH Presidency Željka Cvijanović.

"Some wrongly think that this is just a story about determining cultural status, but it is about competencies, through which the legacy of Republika Srpska is being attributed to BiH," Dodik said.

Dodik said that Republika Srpska today functions as a state, has territory and an efficient government, as well as reflections on the international political level.

Responding to a question on how much national strength Republika Srpska has for self-determination, Dodik said that this right is written in the UN Charter, but that for 30 years it has not been allowed to be expressed.

"Republika Srpska has shown that it is capable of resisting pressure, and we today function as a state, we have territory and an efficient government, as well as reflections on the international political level," Dodik said in Banja Luka after the promotion of the book "Path of Self-Determination" by Milan Ljepojević.

Dodik said the book is important because it deals with the status of Republika Srpska, its right to self-determination, and the fact that only unity can ensure the survival of Serbs.

"The right to self-determination is defined by the UN Charter, but in practical life it is difficult to realize for some and very easy for others. It is difficult for numerically small peoples like us and for small states like Republika Srpska," Dodik said.

He said an additional problem is that from the beginning of the idea called Republika Srpska there was its demonization, which lasted a long time and was organized through domestic Muslim, Croatian and other regional, as well as international media.

"Republika Srpska, under sustained hostilities that were evident, could only survive because its people wanted it to exist. We who are consumers of injustice generated for more than 30 years since the Dayton Agreement now know that only our persistence and unity can ensure our survival," Dodik said.

He reminded that officials and former presidents of Republika Srpska who only asked for respect for what is written in the Dayton Peace Accords were sanctioned by the international community, which continues today.

Dodik said Republika Srpska is proof that international community narratives about human rights and democracy are false.

"The very fact that there was an individual here who imposed decisions that some treated as law shows that this was a misunderstanding, not the Dayton Agreement," Dodik said.