STEVANDIĆ: HYSTERIA OVER CRIMINAL COMPLAINTS PART OF CONTINUED ATTACK ON REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

BANJA LUKA, SEPTEMBER 5 /SRNA/ - The Speaker of the Republika Srpska National Assembly Nenad Stevandić said there was a hysteria in the Federation of BiH /FBiH/ over the filing of criminal complaints against Serbs simply for expressing condolences to the family of General Ratko Mladić, while there was no objection to bringing the joint Armed Forces of BiH to pay respect to war criminal Rasim Delić.

Stevandić said the filing of criminal complaints represents a continuation of attacks on Republika Srpska, while also demonstrating different standards toward officials and citizens of Republika Srpska and the FBiH. "So we are not allowed to express our condolences!? But they are. They are allowed to bring the joint Armed Forces of BiH to pay tribute to war criminal Rasim Delić, to visit his grave. They are allowed, while we are not even allowed to express condolences because then we become suspects," Stevandić pointed out in the SRNA podcast. He said he believed that the FBiH was also using these criminal complaints in an attempt to break Republika Srpska's political representatives who are fighting for Srpska's interests. "They are looking for some political lineup that would not win elections, but that should nevertheless be decided by our people. That is also why Christian Schmidt came up with electoral engineering. He failed to remove Milorad Dodik from public life, he failed to have us arrested and imprisoned, and he failed to undermine the Savo Minić Government. Now they are pursuing two options - mass criminal complaints to tie us up with court proceedings instead of allowing us to focus on our work in Srpska, and secondly, to create a system in which we would lose elections," Stevandić said. CEC IMPLEMENTING SCHMIDT'S ORDERS Stevandić, who is also president of United Srpska /US/, said that the Central Election Commission /CRC/ of BiH was engaged in implementing Christian Schmidt's orders, reminding that it was Schmidt who prohibited US and the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats /SNSD/ from receiving election funding provided to all other political parties. "That is true inequality and electoral engineering. It undermines the integrity of elections," Stevandić said. He criticized the introduction of new voting methods, saying that citizens need to be given an explanation of the new technologies. Stevandić also said that he had received complaints from the CEC over his statements about electoral technologies, although he believed that, as a public official, it was his duty to raise questions about the spending of public money.