Salkić on January 9th: This date has been radicalized and Orthodoxized

Ramiz Salkić, Vice-President of the BiH entity RS, issued a statement on the occasion of January 9th, reports the BiH news agency Patria.

- Twenty years after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, Bosniaks in the BiH entity RS are exposed to discrimination, which is organized and systematically implemented from the level of the ruling apparatus. The Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina clearly states that Bosniaks are equal and constituent throughout the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which means they do not have greater or lesser rights than others. However, despite this, the authorities of the BiH entity RS organize the entity's slava (religious celebration) on January 9th. By doing so, they send us a message that they deny our existence, that they deny our religious feelings, and that they want to demonstrate power in this way. Our obligation is to point out the worrying radicalism and Orthodoxization of the institutions of this entity.

The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina made its decision and declared January 9th unconstitutional. However, the authorities have announced the largest commemoration of this date as the Day of RS to date. It is clear that this is a cheap defiance and an attempt to provoke everyone, both us who are building Bosnia and Herzegovina together, and the international community. The decisions of the Constitutional Court must be respected, because Serbian politics in this country cannot take what suits it and reject what is against its interests, destroying the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while taking the maximum from it through state institutions. I fear that Milorad Dodik's arrogant game has been accepted by many others in RS, completely unaware of the consequences of their actions and policies.

As the Vice-President of the BiH entity RS, I have an obligation to remind that the ruling apparatus has never investigated or punished the perpetrators of genocide in the protected zones of Srebrenica and Žepa. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia clearly ruled that the Army of RS and parts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of RS committed genocide. Official authorities have not yet taken steps to find hundreds of mass graves in this entity, to punish the perpetrators, to distance themselves from the ideology of genocide and crimes. On the contrary, in recent years, they have been intensely denying genocide and reviving Radovan Karadžić's ideas. This dangerous path that the policy in RS is taking should be a warning to international institutions responsible for implementing the Dayton Agreement. This agreement is seriously threatened by the attitude of the Serbian side, and we expect political forces in BiH that advocate for peace, tolerance, and coexistence to receive firm and unquestionable support from the international community.

The authorities of RS consciously celebrate the entity's day in January to separate it from the war and Genocide, wanting to show everyone that the entity was not created as a result of ethnic cleansing, camps, killings, and ultimately the Genocide in Srebrenica. After January 9th, the JNA carried out aggression against BiH. It served one nation, and the consequences were a million displaced persons, 100,000 killed civilians, destruction of all Muslim religious buildings, Genocide... The decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, if implemented, might even contribute to less talk about these facts. As it is, all those who have good memory know these facts, and January 9th reminds them of them.

I call on the authorities in the BiH entity RS to seriously consider and re-examine the political course they are taking, basing it on discrimination, denial, and isolation of others. I am convinced that in the near future they will have enough wisdom and strength to embark on the path of stability, peace, and cooperation, the only path that leads to the future. Therefore, I want to believe that the authorities will accept and implement the Decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that this will be the last official commemoration of the slava and Day of the BiH entity RS.