Bosnian Serb PM warns of Muslim "victim hysteria" over EU visa failure
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - July 23, 2009 Thursday

Excerpt from report by Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA

Banja Luka, 23 July: The [Bosnian] Serb Republic [RS] prime minister, Milorad Dodik, has said in connection with the issue of visas [referring to the EU failing to recommend introduction of visa-free travel for Bosnia-Hercegovina] that there are attempts to turn Bosniaks [Bosnian Muslims] into victims again, although the facts show that more Bosniaks have Croatian passports than Serbs from the RS and B-H [Bosnia-Hercegovina] Serbian passports.

Dodik stressed that Bosniaks have created a general hysteria regarding this, insinuating that everything is against them while ignoring the fact that the citizens of B-H did not get the right to travel to Europe without visas.

He added that the SDA [main Muslim party - Party of Democratic Action] leader, Sulejman Tihic, said that the dismissed B-H security minister, Tarik Sadovic, was to blame for the absence of visa liberalization.

"We have been talking about this for six months, but the same stereotype is being adhered to," Dodik told SRNA and RS Radio-TV. [passage omitted: repeats foreign judges not necessary]

Dodik said it was enough to follow what the head of the Islamic Community in B-H, Mustafa Ceric, is saying to see what the Bosniaks' policy is and that the Bosniaks are again being turned into victims.

"We are left with fighting for as strong as possible RS. We, as the people living in B-H, want to know what is our future and with whom we are living," Dodik said.

The fact that the Islamic community is again fully involved in the political life and that the main political personality among the Bosniaks is Reis Ceric means that if the demand for one man one vote were to be accepted tomorrow, that is, if the entity voting were to be abolished, then B-H would become a state modelled on Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or some other country based on Koran, Dodik said.

"Dilemmas are enormous here and a proof for this are courts. The B-H Court and Prosecution are illegal institutions. They are being kept alive by force. Foreign judges and prosecutors are outside the constitution of this country. Foreign prosecutors and judges come here to put Serbs on trial, while Serbs naively trust these institutions. I do not trust them," Dodik stressed. [passage omitted: repeats this]

Dodik said that news that an Islamic holy warrior was returned to B-H from Guantanamo shows that what was promised in the Dayton Agreement - that all foreigners will leave - has not been done.

"They have not left, while the story about Serb aggression is being pedalled stubbornly. Official information from Croatia shows that more than 6,000 mujahedin crossed their territory. They are hotheads who kill and commit crimes just because someone is of different faith," Dodik stressed. He added that it will be proven that Alija Izetbegovic [Bosnian Muslim war-time political leader] did not think of B-H but about spreading Islam to the region, which is obvious from the [Izetbegovic's] Islamic declaration which the foreigners do not take seriously although it was the ideological basis for the war in B-H.

He said that protection given in B-H to Branimir Glavas, who was sentenced in Croatia for war crimes against Serbs, and the Hague tribunal freeing Naser Orlic [Muslim war-time general], as well as the jailing of Biljana Plavsic [Bosnian Serb war-time vice president] for command responsibility though "she did not command even her two security men", testifies to cynicism in B-H.

"We must understand this," Dodik said, stressing that no-one is processing crimes against Serbs. He demands that perpetrators be brought to justice.

[RS TV last night aired a footage with Bosnian Muslim general ordering execution of two PoWs]

Source: SRNA news agency, Bijeljina, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 1522 gmt 23 Jul 09
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