MASTILOVIĆ: DEFENDING DAYTON AND REPUBLIKA SRPSKA SERBS SAFEGUARD THEIR FUTURE

PALE, NOVEMBER 15 /SRNA/ – Serbs must defend the Dayton Peace Accords and Republika Srpska by all means as guarantees of survival in this region, Draga Mastilović, Director of the Institute of Historical Sciences at the University of Istočno Sarajevo, has said today in Pale.

Mastilović explained that the Dayton Peace Accords provided Serbs with an institutional framework for survival west of the Drina River, namely Republika Srpska, which ensures the continuity of the Serb people in this region. “Without this institutional framework, Republika Srpska, it is certain that in the next 50 or 100 years, which is just a blink in historical terms, there would be no Serbs left in these areas,” Mastilović told reporters. He noted that the Dayton Peace Accords primarily stopped the war in BiH and offered the only possible solution at the time to end the conflict. “The problem is that some in Sarajevo, referring to the Bosniak political elite, with the support of parts of the international community, apparently expected that the peace agreement could be changed in the following period,” Mastilović added. He reminded that since the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords, Republika Srpska has faced significant pressure, amendments to the agreement, attempts to strip its competencies, and that this process has not ended to this day. Mastilović concluded that the academic community should respond to all violent changes to the agreement, and that today’s International Conference “30 Years of the Dayton Peace Accords: Lessons from the Past and Challenges of the Present,” held in Pale and organized by the Institute of Historical Sciences at the University of Istočno Sarajevo, provides an opportunity to do so.