KOVAČEVIĆ: OUTVOTING SERB MEMBER OF BiH PRESIDENCY IS OUTVOTING THE SERB PEOPLE

BANJA LUKA, JULY 7 /SRNA/ - Outvoting the Serb member of the BiH Presidency, Željka Cvijanović, amounts to outvoting the Serb people and Republika Srpska, Serb member of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH Radovan Kovačević warned today.

Kovačević believes that all those in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska who are considering not supporting the veto, that is, the decision to protect the vital interests of Republika Srpska submitted by Cvijanović, are effectively wishing for Sarajevo and representatives of the Bosniak people to outvote and deprive Serbs of their rights. "This is unacceptable! Unfortunately, I see that even someone who ran for the position of Serb member of the Presidency and to protect the interests of Republika Srpska has announced that they will not support the protection of the vital interests of Republika Srpska," Kovačević said at a press conference. He added that the work of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments of BiH may not sound particularly appealing and that many people do not even understand what it is exactly about, but that the key issue is whose national monument something will be declared to be and the manner in which it will be preserved and protected. "What we have been fighting for all this time, and what is stipulated by Annex 8 of the Dayton Agreement, is that there should be national monuments belonging to the Serb, Croat and Bosniak peoples. What Sarajevo has been doing all along, unfortunately sometimes with the support of certain opposition figures from Republika Srpska, is declaring national monuments as monuments of BiH," Kovačević warned. When that was stopped, he added, a new offensive was launched involving renewed outvoting and disenfranchisement of the Serb people of Republika Srpska, as well as the return of foreign officials who would, together with Bosniaks, designate Serbs and declare which Serb cultural and historical monuments are cultural monuments of BiH. In this regard, Kovačević asked whether the Krka Monastery was a Croatian national monument, and whether the Gračanica and Visoki Dečani monasteries were "Kosovo national cultural monuments." "No, they are not! They are Serbian. In the same way as the Gomionica Monastery, Hercegovačka Gračanica, or any other of our national cultural monuments. And that is how it must remain," Kovačević said. He also highlighted the importance of the issue of property, stating that representatives from Sarajevo who seek to claim that BiH has property argue that one of the first categories that must constitute BiH property is everything that the Commission to Preserve National Monuments has declared to be national monuments. "Do we want our gospels, monasteries, churches, bridges and monuments to belong to BiH, while we, as Republika Srpska and the Serb people, have no rights and cannot have any say in anything?" Kovačević asked. He stressed that representatives of Republika Srpska in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH fully support the veto, that is, the protection of the vital interests of Republika Srpska, which Cvijanović is defending today before the National Assembly of Republika Srpska. "We are completely confident that there are enough patriotically conscious people here who will recognise this and protect Republika Srpska," Kovačević said. Asked whether the institutions of BiH can function without foreign experts, he replied that the important question is what BiH wants to be. "Ask those in Sarajevo. They want it to be a sovereign state, but in such a state there is no place for foreigners to make decisions. You are sovereign when you make decisions about yourselves," Kovačević said. As an interesting fact, he pointed out that the authorities of Republika Srpska are calling for decisions in BiH to be made by representatives of the three constituent peoples and the two entities. "The problem with those in Sarajevo is that they do not want to reach agreements, but rather impose their will on others," Kovačević said. Referring to the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, he recalled that in 2016 an agreement was reached for foreign members to withdraw from the Commission in accordance with Annex 8. "When representatives of the Bosniak people sought to do something that was not in accordance with Annex 8, and the Serbs did not allow it, they now want to bring back foreigners who would enable them to outvote the Serbs," Kovačević said. He warned that this was a path towards the disappearance of BiH. "If they want BiH to be what is written in the Constitution – for the constituent peoples to reach agreements and seek solutions – then we will reach an agreement very easily. But if they want a BiH in which political Sarajevo dictates, imposes its will, belittles and oppresses Republika Srpska and the Serb, as well as the Croat people, then there will be no BiH," Kovačević concluded.