Dodik: Crimea legally declares independence, Kosovo illegal

BANJA LUKA - Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik stated in Banja Luka that no parallels can be drawn between the situation in Kosovo and that in Crimea as Kosovo illegitimately declared independence and violated the UN Charter and the UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

Dodik noted that the Resolution guarantees Serbia its territorial integrity and noted that no referendum was organised in Kosovo-Metohija.

The decision on Kosovo's illegal declaration of independence was adopted by a 'group of individuals who declared themselves the parliament which did not include representatives from the entire territory of Kosovo', the RS president said as reported by the media of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH).

“Had Kosovo followed the procedures observed by Crimea, I would gladly say that this was the people's right to self-determination because I want to affirm this right for all peoples and nations, including Bosniaks who wanted to assert their right to self-determination in 1991 in the circumstances of separation from Yugoslavia,” Dodik said.

He recalled that Bosniaks presented themselves as the representatives of the entire BiH using this right and imposed the stereotype according to which BiH was constituted with internal contradictions which led to the war.

The war ended by the Dayton Treaty which defined the BiH structure because only such a new concept could survive, Dodik said and underscored that a unitarian BiH with greater powers for Sarajevo is not possible.

As for Crimea, Dodik reiterated the RS stand according to which the people of Crimea staged a legitimate democratic referendum in keeping with international laws and the UN Charter on the right of the people to...