Brnabic: Regardless of challenges, Serbia and Srpska must stick together

BANJALUKA - Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic said in Banjaluka on Thursday evening that, regardless of the challenges they faced, Serbia and Republika Srpska must stick together and that, unlike some before them, those who were in power in Serbia now would always stand with Republika Srpska and the Serbs.

"Regardless all the challenges and misfortunes we are facing together. However difficult the times and however complex the challenges may be, it is important that we stick together, that we get together, that we help each other and that we are always one in our national being," Brnabic said in a speech at a Srpska Is Calling You rally, held in response to a draft Srebrenica resolution to be debated in the UN General Assembly in May.

Brnabic said she wanted to send three messages from the gathering.

"My first message is that Serbia has always been and will be for respect of the Dayton Agreement. Unfortunately, it seems that we are the only ones who have always held that position fully and consistently and never changed it. At the same time, we have always been targeted by the dirtiest attacks, mindless lies, just because someone has a problem with a Serbia that is getting stronger and stronger economically and more and more successful in every aspect and looking after its people," Brnabic said.

She said her second message was that one of the former Serbian governments had imposed sanctions on Republika Srpska and that those who had come after it had followed orders from abroad.

"Today, people who will always stand with Srpska and the Serbs are in power in Serbia. We certainly need not always think alike and our opinions may differ, we can sometimes disagree on certain things, but we will always be together. And the harder things get for us, the closer we will be to each other," Brnabic said.

She said the third message was that Serbia was the only country in the region whose top officials had expressed regret for victims among other Balkan nations.

She said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who was PM at the time, had been "brutally attacked" during a visit to Srebrenica to pay a tribute.

"They wanted to kill him, lynch him. To this day, that remains the only attack on a foreign official that has not been punished in any way," Brnabic said.

Urging Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina to withdraw the draft resolution if they want to live together with the Serbs, Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik said Republika Srpska would otherwise consider how and for how long it would participate in life in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

As soon as the opportunity for that arises, Republika Srpska will be in an alliance with Serbia, Dodik told a packed Krajina Square in Banjaluka.