Krug 99 responds to Dodik: Bosnians and Herzegovinians have their own state, it is called Bosnia and Herzegovina!

(Patria) - We are pleased by the fact that Milorad Dodik, like other political actors, follows the work of the Association of Independent Intellectuals Krug 99, which for over 30 years has regularly held its sessions and informed the entire public about them, with particular interest in Krug 99's positions on various social issues.

This is stated in Krug 99's response to Milorad Dodik's statement regarding the convention "Bosnia is Ours - Bosnian."

"Unfortunately, it is evident that Mr. Dodik remains trapped in the matrix of a totalitarian system, in which he expresses a tendency to autocratically, or as 'the only one who has a say,' maintain the political system that enables this. His interpretations of the Dayton Peace Agreement are so inaccurate that they have long provoked ridicule among the general public. In his parallel reality, there are supposed 'common institutions' in the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, according to him, were 'formed by the entities' with their signatures in Dayton, where Bosnia and Herzegovina is supposedly a confederation of these two entities. Within a consociational democracy that does not exist anywhere in the world, not even in Bosnia and Herzegovina. And in which the Council of Ministers is some auxiliary body of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. None of the above exists either in the letter or the spirit of the Dayton Peace Agreement," the response states.

They add: "We have a concrete question for him – let him show the document in which the then leadership of the Republika Srpska, during the Dayton negotiations, authorized or made a decision to authorize Nikola Koljević to sign the annexes of the Dayton Peace Agreement. If such a document does not exist, and it clearly does not, then Dodik's illusion that the entity of Republika Srpska is a subject of international law, which can participate in international interactions, is quite clear, which it certainly is not, nor will it ever be."

"Finally, his claims that the holding of the convention titled 'Bosnia is Ours - Bosnian' is nothing more than a gathering held by Bosnians who, according to him, fall into the category of 'Others' or minorities, are equally ridiculous and inaccurate. We ask the same Dodik, are the French in their state an ethnic minority, or are the Germans in their state an ethnic minority, the Swiss as well, or are they some of their 'Others'? Of course not, because these are French, Germans, and Swiss as expressions of their nationality. The fact that Dodik does not understand the difference between national and ethnic affiliation, probably driven by the communist style of thinking of those who advise him, is his problem," the statement reads.

From Krug 99, they convey: Bosnians and Herzegovinians have their own state called Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has existed for almost a thousand years, in which various ethnic, religious, and cultural groups live together. This is an expression of the Bosnian nation and cannot be understood otherwise. His deceptions, that the idea of a civic state, which Krug 99 has advocated for many years, is simplified into a story about only ethnic Bosniaks wanting some dominance, represent a continuation of his and Čović's unsuccessful contamination of the noble idea of a civic state in which all citizens have equal rights. In contrast, the idea of the Bosnian nation and civic state is inclusive in nature, with room for all ethnic groups, for all ethnic Bosniaks, ethnic Croats, ethnic Serbs, ethnic Jews, ethnic Roma, and so on, over 20 ethnic groups that exist in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but as equal citizens of this country.

For its part, Krug 99 will not allow any ethnic group to misuse the idea of the Bosnian nation, which consists of all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, or the idea of a civic state, in a way that this particular ethnic group puts it to its own political purpose. Our idea of the Bosnian nation is inclusive in character within the Bosnian state, where there is room for everyone, while Dodik's ideas, including Čović's UZP acrobatics, are exclusive in character, dominated by inequality and discrimination, where there is no room for all citizens but only for the chosen ones, which Krug 99 will oppose with all its capacities."