Dodik's cabinet to Ukraine: Provide evidence for your claims

SARAJevo, (Patria) - The cabinet of the member and chairman of the BiH Presidency, Milorad Dodik, called on the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, to stop "playing state and Twitter diplomacy", and to act in accordance with international law and the conventions he invokes in public statements.

"As a doctor of legal sciences and a minister of foreign affairs, he should be aware of the basic legal principle that he who asserts something must prove it, not he who denies something. Also, he should be aware of the numerous conventions concerning the protection of national, historical and cultural property and the prohibition of their alienation, such as the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property of 1970," the statement from the cabinet of the Serb member and chairman of the BiH Presidency states.

Reacting to the repeated false accusations by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the cabinet once again called on the Ukrainian side to provide all valid evidence in accordance with the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the aforementioned Convention, as well as to officially declare if they do not possess material evidence to confirm their claims.

The statement reminds that, in the interest of truthful and objective public information, and to finally put an end to this fabricated "problem", the cabinet of the Serb member and chairman of the BiH Presidency requested the Embassy of Ukraine in Sarajevo on December 23 last year to provide all relevant information regarding the claims of Ukraine's ownership of the icon in question.

"The cabinet explicitly requested the Embassy of Ukraine to provide all legally valid facts and evidence confirming that any ownership of the icon belongs to Ukraine, as well as all evidence confirming the claims that the icon in question was alienated, including information on the method of alienation, time, place, and owner," the statement reads.

The cabinet emphasizes that to this day, the Embassy of Ukraine has not provided the requested information. 

"Basing claims on misinterpretations of media articles and then publicly presenting falsehoods and accusations is a reflection of amateurism and a lack of elementary knowledge in the fields of law, international relations, and diplomacy," it is stated in the statement from the cabinet of the Serb member and chairman of the BiH Presidency.

The statement reminds that no international institution, not even Interpol, whose involvement in this manipulation has been most speculated about, has confirmed that the icon in question is on any list of alienated cultural heritage sought by Ukraine or any other country. 

In the past month, various theories have been constructed, speculation about the origin of the icon has occurred, and numerous accusations have been made against the Serb member and chairman of the BiH Presidency without a single argument, evidence, or even indication that it is actually a stolen icon and that it is part of the "missing" historical and cultural heritage sought by Ukraine.

The cabinet of the Serb member and chairman of the BiH Presidency once again called on the Ukrainian side to refrain from expressing views based on unverified and incredible information, as well as fake news, because in this way they undermine the credibility of the institutions they represent, mislead the public and citizens, and cause enormous damage to bilateral relations.