Kovačević: RS opposition should have shown it was against the referendum and boycotted it

Goran Kovačević, a lecturer at the Faculty of Criminology in Sarajevo, believes that the president of the BiH entity of Republika Srpska is not a winner, but the biggest loser in the country, after he organized a referendum on the celebration of January 9th in this part of BiH today, even though both the celebration and the referendum were previously banned by the BiH Constitutional Court.

- Tensions are high all over the world, the Balkans is also a seismic area, and it is necessary to pursue a policy of calming down, not escalation - Kovačević told Dnevnik on TV1, NAP reports.

When asked by the journalist if he agreed with the opposition in RS, which says that the real referendum is on October 2nd, when local elections are held in BiH, Kovačević said that the opposition should have shown that, boycotted the referendum and directed all its strength towards the elections on October 2nd.

Commenting on the possibility that the High Representative in BiH, Valentin Inzko, might impose sanctions on those responsible for conducting the unconstitutional referendum, Kovačević said that even the attempt to commit a criminal offense is punishable. The authorities in RS prepared the referendum for a month, but Inzko did not react.

When asked if new conflicts are possible in BiH, Kovačević answered that this is also possible if the presidents of nationalist political options meet in cafes.

- If the presidents of SDA, HDZ BiH, SNSD, and even SBB - for which it is difficult to determine whether it is a political option or just exists according to the image and work of Fahrudin Radončić - meet in cafes, conflicts may arise.

He said that if the DF were in power, they would never have signed for the IMF to grant a loan to BiH, so Dodik would not have had the money to finance the referendum.