Dodik's Amnesia: Swearing by Karadžić Today, Calling Him a Criminal Publicly Before

Milorad Dodik is a true political chameleon, ready to do anything to stay in power.

When it suits him for pre-election points, war criminal Radovan Karadžić, for whom he once said his place was in The Hague Tribunal and that he was a criminal who stole money from the National Bank of Republika Srpska, is now a "visionary" after whom the student dormitory in Pale should be named, writes the BiH news agency Patria.

As part of his election campaign, Dodik yesterday opened a dormitory for students of the University of East Sarajevo by cutting a ribbon, an event attended by the Prime Minister of Republika Srpska and candidate for the BiH Presidency, Željka Cvijanović, as well as Karadžić's wife, Ljiljana Zelen, who rarely appears in public.

The BiH news agency Patria reminds the public, as well as Dodik himself, of the statements he made in previous years.

However, at that time, he was an opposition figure whom the international community later brought to power due to his cooperativeness and willingness to cooperate, even to disown all criminals.

Back in 1996, Dodik stated:

"It is necessary for all those who have committed specific war crimes to be brought before the Hague Tribunal. I mean Karadžić and Mladić too. Let the court determine whether they are guilty or not, instead of shifting their responsibility onto the entire Serbian people. Guilt is an individual matter, so let everyone pay for the crimes they have committed."

Five years later, the SNSD leader had the same rhetoric.

"I have said this before. The leaders of the SDS should be brought before the Hague Tribunal for their responsibility for the war and crimes. I think it is really necessary for me, as a representative of the Serbian people and a member of that people, to openly talk about what was done and what, according to my knowledge, happened during the war under the SDS rule. Of course, I do not think that all SDS members were those who supported crimes, but a significant group of SDS members should bear criminal responsibility for the crimes committed. That responsibility must be personified. It cannot be collectivized."

A year later, Dodik, who has currently based his entire campaign, especially intensifying it in the final stretch, on nationalist rhetoric and glorifying criminals, spoke about Karadžić and Mladić as follows.

"I think the people have had enough of these grand games, and there would be no significant reactions to their arrest, regardless of the fact that there are already entire movements that want to make Karadžić and Mladić some mythical figures and people who deserve something. It is typical for Serbs to turn losers into mythical figures. The burden of Karadžić and Mladić must be lifted from the Serbian people!"

KARADŽIĆ STOLE 36 MILLION MARKS FROM THE NATIONAL BANK OF RS

The Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, stated in 2005 that Radovan Karadžić took about 36 million marks from the National Bank of RS.

"There are documents that Karadžić took 36 million marks from Banja Luka in a bag in the spring of 1997," Dodik said at the time.  

"First, he took banknotes worth 28 million marks from the treasury of the National Bank of Republika Srpska, and another eight million on a second occasion. He had already been dismissed and was hiding from international justice at the time," he said, adding that this criminal offense "never expires, and if someone wants to launch an investigation, they can do so even today." 

Shortly after this statement, Dodik took the chair of the Prime Minister of RS, but he never launched an investigation into the theft of money, for which he claimed to have evidence. Instead, today he promises assistance to Karadžić's family and glorifies the war criminal for the needs of his election campaign.