RS leader supports "third, Croat entity" in Bosnia

(Tanjug, file)

RS leader supports "third, Croat entity" in Bosnia

ZAGREB -- Serb Republic (Republika Srpska, RS) President Milorad Dodik has said that Bosnia-Herzegovina "has no future except as a loose confederation."

Dodik also spoke in favor of the creation of a third, Croat entity in that country, noting that "Herzeg-Bosnia used to exist."

He was referring to a Croat entity set up during the 1992-1995 war. The post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina is made up of the Serb Republic (RS), and the Muslim-Croat Federation (FBiH).

"Croats used to have this 'state' of their own, Herzeg-Bosnia, but then they made a terrible mistake by renouncing it with the 1994 Washington Agreement," Dodik told the Zagreb daily Jutarnji List. He also "warned about the strengthening of Muslim fundamentalism in Bosnia-Herzegovina."

"I would not hesitate to support Herzeg-Bosnia. I think the official policy of the Republic of Croatia once sacrificed Croat national interests in Bosnia-Herzegovina, accepting that mistake called the Washington Agreement. I have a positive attitude towards Herzeg-Bosnia, and I would not mind if it still existed, but to be truly a republic, and truly have all the prerogatives of a state - the same as the Serb Republic," he said.

The RS president stressed that the RS has had the name entity "wrongly imposed" on it, and that "entity" is "a word that means nothing in itself - that is, it has quite a different meaning than 'a state'."

"The FBiH entity has proved to be dysfunctional and unsustainable, as has this kind of Bosnia-Herzegovina. In the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina only the RS is sustainable - it could instantly start an independent life. A second viable republic or state would be Herzeg-Bosnia -...

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