'RS was saved by NATO planes, Dodik rode in on their tanks'

By: S. Omeragić

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Milorad Dodik stated: „We will not join NATO, because NATO bombed us.“

He forgot that SFOR units – NATO – brought him to power in RS on their tanks. Unfortunately, it is always necessary to remind people of the rise of certain individuals, including the current leader of RS.

NATO saved RS, and unfortunately, it is today like a stone in the path of the state of BiH towards Euro-Atlantic democratic integration.

When units of the Army of RBiH, primarily the 5th and 7th Corps, reached Prijedor and amassed forces for a final offensive on Banja Luka, many clearly remember the panicked call from Karadžić's deputy Nikola Koljević to Slobodan Milošević, which could be heard over a radio station: „Mr. President, I implore you to react. Call Moscow, call London. If Prijedor falls, the Army of Republika Srpska will cease to exist.“

General Slavko Lisica openly told RTRS journalists that units of the Army of RBiH were near Banja Luka and that „the people were on the move and it was a matter of time before everyone fled. But someone stopped their offensive.“

Richard Holbrooke, a peace negotiator, requested a meeting with the Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović. In his memoirs, he states that on September 21st, he informed the Bosnian leader at the White House to halt the offensive on Banja Luka. „I want to be open in the privacy of this room. We asked them not to take Banja Luka...“ The Americans wanted to end the war as soon as possible and launch a peace process. While on his way to California, President Bill Clinton told them: „I want you to do everything for peace“, adding that Bosnia was crying out for peace. That same evening, he was a guest on the famous Larry King show: When the conversation turned to Bosnia, President Clinton, after speaking with Holbrooke and hinting at peace, said: „I haven't felt better in a long time.“

However, President Izetbegović was reluctant to agree to peace, as he was only days away from the possibility of taking Prijedor and, as Holbrooke put it, gaining control of the area with „terrible mass graves of his people“. Holbrooke sympathized with him but vehemently demanded an end to the war. „You have 24 hours to do what you can, and then stop the offensive.“ Izetbegović asked for seven days. Holbrooke was almost furious. After a major argument, Holbrooke gave three days, or 72 hours, or the Americans would withdraw militarily and politically from BiH. There were all sorts of threats, even that Alliance planes would bomb units of the Army of RBiH if they did not stop. In the end, it was agreed to three days of offensive with a ban on the Army of RBiH entering Banja Luka.

Journalist Tim Judah wrote an article on September 10, 1995: „Bosnian Serbs welcome US peace plan“, which reveals that the halt of the offensive saved Banja Luka from the forces of the legal Government of BiH:

„American negotiator Richard Holbrooke – to the astonishment of everyone on the ground and to his own later regret – threw away an already gained military advantage... The Bosnians who were on the verge of taking Banja Luka and other cities, obeyed... Blessed be Holbrooke's name! The Serbs, apparently on the verge of total defeat, were ecstatic“, wrote the renowned journalist Tim Judah.

In the same way that RS, as an entity in BiH, can thank NATO planes for its existence, Dodik can thank NATO tanks for coming to power in that same RS. After the early parliamentary elections in 1997, SDS lost its majority in the National Assembly, and Dodik's SNSD gained two deputies. Nevertheless, Biljana Plavšić, as president, appointed Dodik as prime minister, and he managed to form a government in January 1998, with the support of Western countries, the High Representative, and Bosniak deputies elected in the first elections for the RS Assembly in 1996.

Yugoslav diplomat Nebojša Vujović once explained how Dodik „tanked“ his way to power in Banja Luka:

“He had useful talks at the Republican Institute, at the National Democratic Institute, with representatives of the State Department, and they all, especially the new head of the Balkan desk Bertram Braun, advised him to contact me, to talk to me”, Vujović reveals and concludes that it was “an American investment in a new political leader of the Bosnian Serbs”.

Vujović states that he gave Dodik useful advice during those talks, without going into detail.

After American preparations and training, Milorad Dodik became Prime Minister of Republika Srpska in 1998, and for the American administration, he was a "breath of fresh air in the Balkans", as Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State, once described him during a visit to Banja Luka.

Therefore, Milorad Dodik and RS must be deeply grateful to NATO forces for all they have done for them. How to express that gratitude is offered to them precisely by NATO, through membership which would bring good to both Serbs and RS.