Vucevic: Ruling in Dodik trial anticivilisational, unlawful

VRDNIK - Serbia's caretaker PM Milos Vucevic said Wednesday's first-instance ruling in a trial of Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik before a Bosnia and Herzegovina court was anticivilisational and unlawful and encroached upon the sovereignty of Republika Srpska citizens and their right to decide about their representatives.

Speaking to reporters in Vrdnik near Novi Sad, Vucevic said Wednesday had been a difficult day for Dodik, his family and entire Republika Srpska, as well as for entire Serbia and the Serbs, wherever they may live.

"Nothing is a coincidence - the length of the prison sentence and, especially, the ban on performing public office," Vucevic said, noting that everything had been planned and determined with "electoral cycles and Mr Dodik's age" in mind.

He said a media campaign against Serbia and its state leadership had been conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the past several days.

"It was a barrage of statements that are not well-intentioned and do not lead to a calming of tensions in the region and do not contribute to preservation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which they are advocating. If you are constantly attacking a nation that is a constitutional nation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and if you are attacking an entity that is a constitutional part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, then you are attacking Bosnia and Herzegovina itself," Vucevic said.

He said passions must be calmed on all sides and noted that Serbia stood with Republika Srpska, its citizens and its legally and legitimately elected leadership.

Vucevic said Serbia insisted on full respect of the Dayton Agreement and on reinstatement of its fundamental principles and its substance, and noted that the agreement had brought peace to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the entire region.

He also said blackmailing Republika Srpska through statements about a reassessment of the status of the Brcko District was "not good" and did not contribute to peace but to heightening of tensions.