Vucic: Serbia will always stand with R Srpska and support its president

BANJALUKA - Serbia will always stand with Republika Srpska and its people, and it will always support the president of Republika Srpska, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in Banjaluka on Wednesday evening after a meeting with Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik.

Commenting on Dodik's conviction by a Sarajevo-based court, Vucic said:

"I guess those people gave themselves the moral right to always be able to make threats and do whatever comes to their mind, thinking they are pounding a punching bag."

He noted that his message to the people of Republika Srpska was that Serbia would do everything in its power to always help preserve peace.

Vucic said Dodik's conviction was, above all, aimed against Republika Srpska and the Serbs as a whole.

Dodik was sentenced to one year in prison and a six-year ban on performing the duty of Republika Srpska president for what the Sarajevo court said was disrespect of decisions by High Representative Christian Schmidt.

"Today is a day that is not an easy one - a difficult day for Serbs as a whole," Vucic said at a press conference with Dodik.

He said Dodik had been convicted of something that cannot even be called a verbal offence, "something that does not exist in the contemporary world and something we thought will never exist anywhere in the world."

He said he had come to Banjaluka with two requests to Dodik and to convey the conclusions of Serbia's National Security Council, which held an urgent session on Wednesday afternoon.

"We will probably also have a National Assembly session within a month's time, to which the Republika Srpska president, too, will be invited to address the MPs and inform them of the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. We will also discuss a potential UN Security Council session, to see if there is a need to initiate a Security Council session, and how," Vucic said.

He noted he had come to Banjaluka to ask the Republika Srpska leadership to make a call for dialogue and to ask for "togetherness" of Serbs and Serb political parties in Republika Srpska.

"I came here for two things - one is to ask Milorad Dodik and the Republika Srpska leadership to once again call for discussions and dialogue by all political representatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the EU and, of course, representatives of Russia and China," Vucic said.

Dodik said he was ready for dialogue with all Bosniak and Croat representatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina on how to make the country constitutional and sustainable for all, but noted that the Serbs would not comply with rules that stripped them of all their rights.