Sabina Ćudić tells Željka Cvijanović: It's high time to bring schools in RS into the 21st century

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Bosniak children in the Zvornik settlement of Liplje did not attend classes today because their birth registries listed the language of the Bosniak people instead of Bosnian.

Sabina Ćudić, president of the Main Board of Our Party and a representative in the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament, reacted to this.

“Željka Cvijanović, President of Republika Srpska, wished the children in that entity a happy start to the new school year this morning. For her congratulations to be taken seriously, and not just as a formal political obligation, and for this start to truly be happy for everyone, I urge her to urgently influence the demands of children and parents from Liplje to be met, and for 'Bosnian language' to be entered into the birth registries instead of 'language of the Bosniak people'," Ćudić stated.

She adds that she is obligated to do so by the laws of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the entity she leads. She is obligated by numerous international conventions to which BiH is a signatory, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ultimately, she is also obligated by the verdict of the Supreme Court of RS rendered last year, which concerned children from Vrbanjci near Kotor Varoš.

“Furthermore, disputing the name Bosnian language has nothing to do with science, no matter how much the Serbian nationalist intellectual and political elite tries to prove it. Sociolinguistics states that everyone has the right to name their language as they wish. Not only peoples, but also individuals. The terror of the majority over the minority in RS must stop, and besides being illegal, the denial of the name Bosnian language is also an anti-civilizational act. I want to believe that this is an isolated case and not a continuation of a systemic practice aimed at preventing the basic human rights of returnees and forcing them to emigrate to places where they can exercise those rights. To prove this, a reaction must come from the top of the executive power in RS. Schools in RS must be brought into the 21st century,” Ćudić concluded.