Western democracy or darkness: Dodik on battle tanks

By Sead Omeragic

Milorad Dodik is a man of alibies. He always finds a justification for his actions. Bosniaks get on his nerves; he says they want a unitary BiH, he talks about secessions all the time, he has a problem with Bosnia and Herzegovina so he wants to tear it in pieces and have it annexed to Serbia, he blames Presidency BiH for not putting the entity flag despite of the fact that the state law does not allow it...

Last New Year's eve, Dodik brought 'tanks' to the streets of Banja Luka. Now he has issues with his own people, yet wisely keeping silent about it. He fancies a coup d'état by peaceful protesters.
The 'tanks' on the streets of Banja Luka remind of something that Dodik did 22 years ago in order to seize power. Now that was a classic coup d'état. The entity assembly was consolidated by force. He had only two parliament members of his own, of 83 delegates of the People's Assembly. NATO – SFOR was riding on their tanks from Bijeljina towards Banja Luka and delegates were being called via radio SIM to return to the session.  

The voting for Dodik was described by Richard Holbrooke in his memoires: 'Results of the elections of 27 September 1997, under the OSCE supervision, were quite a surprise. 18 members of the RS Assembly were (Bosniaks) Muslims voted for by the refugees in the places where they lived. Those Muslim delegates, along with Plavsic's followers and those controlled by Milosevic – elected a prime minister unanimously – it was a previously unknown 39 year old businessman Milorad Dodik', wrote Holbrooke. 

Bosniak delegates all voted for the new man. Witnesses said that Plavsic and Dodik begged on their knees Bosniaks delegates to elect the prime minister with only two parliament delegates, as that also meant their political and any other survival in the Republika Srpska. After all, numerous foreign diplomats also supported the new man in the RS government, not having any clue what he could turn into. Their opinion was of critical importance for the Bosniaks hence their voting for Dodik, which propelled him to the position of the RS leader.

Holbrooke carried on: 'Although the government in Sarajevo observed it with skepticism, Dodik announced that he was going to respect Dayton and build a multiethnic Bosnia. In return, the United States began to send humanitarian aid that Bosnian Serbs had been previously denied. Long awaited dismantling of Pale as war capital of Serbs started when the assembly and government offices, one by one, began to move to Banja Luka', wrote Holbrooke in his memoires.  

Therefore, Dodik rode to the power on the NATO tanks, which now he considers unacceptable for the RS interests, running to Putin's embrace every once in a while, opening numerous Russian institutions and branch offices  all over Banja Luka.

No wonder Del Ponte described him as a man who talks a lot but without strength to fulfil his promises.

Today he is one talkative politician with all kind of stories. His opinions alternate – today is one, tomorrow something entirely different.

That said, he most often tells the story about dividing the country in which he is the president. It has become a paradox that even the world media write about, mocking his pretensions. He gets support from the Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic and the Prime Minister Ana Brnabic. The latter has proposed to divide BiH on the basis of the worst ethnic cleansing of an autochthon European nation.

There are verdicts by the international courts on the crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide. Today, the offenders seek to take over the territories in which they exterminated one nation, which was confirmed by the said verdicts.  It would present a breakdown of the international justice, a form of racism not seen before, which would only prove that genocide over a European people pays off?! Is something like that possible to happen before the eyes of the omnipotent western democracy? So powerful that it should defend itself from these threats even more than Bosnia and Herzegovina and its largest nation.