DODIK: SRPSKA OPERATES WITHOUT INTERRUPTION DESPITE BLOCKADES

SOCHI, OCTOBER 1 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik says that despite years of blockades coming from Sarajevo, Republika Srpska continues to function without interruption, and that his task was to ensure that.

Dodik says that with Donald Trump’s return to power in the United States, it is becoming clearer that many in the US administration, and in Europe, now see that the appointment of Christian Schmidt was not in accordance with the Dayton Peace Agreement. He has noted there is still willingness to return to the Dayton Peace Agreement, but that some oppose it. "They now want to say that a trial took place, Dodik is guilty, let’s move on. That is an attempt to erase all the violations and what was done - namely, that Muslim judges are enforcing decrees and try Serbs. They have done the most damage to the Dayton Peace Agreement and think that will become the norm," said Dodik. If we allow it to become standard practice, Dodik added, then Muslim judges will be allowed to prosecute everything in Republika Srpska. "Muslim prosecutors were highly motivated to do this, while our people in the prosecutorial hierarchy didn’t believe it was necessary to defend the fundamental principle of the BiH Constitution, which is the constituent status of the Serb people," Dodik said. The president of Republika Srpska explained that he was forced to go to court because of the possibility of an arrest warrant and pretrial detention being issued. "We decided to oppose this with unity. Unity included both the government and the opposition," Dodik said in the interview with SRNA and RTRS in Sochi. Dodik reiterated that the judgment does not conclude the process. "They believe the court case is over. That trial should never have started. It’s a grotesque violation of both the Constitution and the rule of law," said Dodik. Srpska president pointed out that the head of the EU Delegation to BiH, Luigi Soreca, said back in May 2024 that no one has the right to replace local institutions, yet after the trial, he claimed the rule of law must be respected. "What rule of law? What did you say not long ago, and what are you saying now?" Dodik asked. He added that 15 or 20 years ago, it wasn’t possible to recognize what internationals were doing or what conspiracies they were making, which is possible to uncover now very quickly. Commenting on the statement by Irena Hadžiabdić, president of the Central Election Commission /CEC/ of BiH, that elections will be held even if only at polling stations in the Federation of BiH, Dodik said that the goal was precisely to impose a legal hierarchy. The president of Republika Srpska stressed that the BiH Constitution was violated the day Nenad Vuković was selected by drawing lots in the CEC as a deputy to the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly. "There is no other legal way to elect deputies to the House of Peoples except through a decision of the Republika Srpska National Assembly," Dodik reminded.