Dodik's 'dreams' are a serious and worrying disorder

By: Enver Išerić, legal expert

The president of the Bosnian entity Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, said today that "Serbs entered this century with two states - Serbia and RS". He stated this at a ceremonial academy in Novi Sad on the occasion of the so-called Day of Serbian Unity, Freedom, and National Flag.

This Bosnian politician will not give up trouble and a futile endeavor. Dreaming is not forbidden. Nor is it possible to forbid it. But he presents his dreams as reality. This is a serious and worrying disorder. The only truth is that Bosniaks entered this century with an independent state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. One, only, unified, and indivisible state of all its citizens who consider it their homeland.

Milorad says that Serbs have always brought freedom to other peoples and have always fought for freedom. Well, Milorad, I don't need the freedom you bring. And no one denies Serbs the right to fight for their freedom. But we – Bosniaks – will also fight for our freedom. And we will never allow anyone to threaten it. Neither our freedom nor the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We know and see that you are trying to threaten both. You have many helpers. Public and secret. They have been exposed and read. And they will be thwarted.

You are trying to portray Bosniaks as terrorists and a threat to the stability of the whole of Europe. It's ridiculous. Bosniaks have never been a threat to anyone. And we never will be. Except to the enemies of Bosnia and Herzegovina who try to harm us and our state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. And remember, all of you who are "playing" with some percentages of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which you want to divide into three, that there is no and will never be a physical division of the state or territory. Never.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is registered as 1/3,531,159. Do you know what that means? The state of all its citizens. On every inch of it. And 3,531,159 is the number of inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 2013 census. You accuse Bosniaks of advocating for some Islamic state, imagined in your heads, so you would give them 20 percent of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina to form it. I'm sorry. You are not in a position to offer that. You are offering something that is ours, common, and indivisible.

If we were to conduct a survey now, I think we would get a result that fifty percent of Bosniaks do not even know what an Islamic state is, and therefore cannot advocate for something that is unknown and unclear to them. And those who accuse Bosniaks of striving for it know even less about the concept of an Islamic state. The other half might know something about this concept, but would categorically reject such an idea. Thus, all these deceptions fall flat.

We Bosniaks are satisfied with our state being a civic and secular Bosnia and Herzegovina, where all human rights will be guaranteed to every citizen. These rights include the right to religion. So let everyone believe as they wish, in whom/what they wish, and as much as they wish. It is not ours (human) to judge that. It is ours to fight against oppression, attacks, assaults, aggression, crimes, genocide, insolence, boorishness, negligence, crime, corruption, destruction, obstruction, and humiliation of various kinds that these citizens suffer due to the policies you advocate and pursue at the state and entity level, with your coalition partners.