Dodik: Dayton Agreement is destroyed

BANJA LUKA - Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik said that the Dayton Agreement is destroyed by the actions of high representatives for Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), although still in force as an international agreement.

On the anniversary of the Dayton Accord that ended the four-year civil war in BiH, Dodik told reporters on Friday that, 19 years after the agreement was signed, BiH remains "stuck in misunderstandings" and is unable to reach a consensus on a single issue.

Dodik stressed that RS would have been an "empty shell" today if in 2006 he had not set the political course towards defending the Dayton Agreement and the position of RS in accordance with it, and so put an end to a further transfer of its powers to the BiH level.

Dodik pointed out that RS is not responsible for the failure to implement the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the Sejdic-Finci case, regarding a discriminatory provision of the state's Constitution which prevents members of national minorities to be elected to the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly and the Presidency of BiH.

According to BiH Constitution, only the representatives of three constituent nations - Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats - can be elected to the highest state bodies.

The Bosniaks in the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina are trying to outvote the Croats, and the Croats do not allow it. This is why the judgment in the Sejdic-Finci case is not being implemented, and that is one of the conditions for BiH to move forward on its European path, the Republika Srpska president said.

Photo Tanjug, Z. Zestic (archive photo)