26.12.2019.
Minister Vulin: You can overthrow me, but you will never find anyone else who would sign that Republika Srpska is not our priority
“When Serbs say they will take care of Serbs wherever they live, including in Republika Srpska as an integral part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, why would it be aggression and why would it be interfering in internal affairs, an attack on the integrity of any country or people”, defence minister Aleksandar Vulin asked before members of the National Assembly responding to attacks from Sarajevo on defence and national security strategies as it says that Serbia will take care of Serbs wherever they live.
- It is not so and it cannot be! Serbia has the right and obligation to take care of Serbs, no matter where they live. To help, to open a factory in Drvar, regardless of the fact that Drvar is in the Federation; because that is where the Serbs live. Why should we not help them? How could we stand not to help them – the defence minister repeated, adding that “it seems that whenever the Serbs speak, it is perceived as a threat”, but that Serbia will speak and it speaks. “Serbia is upright and it will stand up.”
- They can threaten us with whatever they want. We heard from Komšić that he would bring the NATO Pact to our border. First, I do not know on whose behalf he is speaking, second, I do not understand how he can bring in or take anyone away when three nations and two entities should decide on it in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But he still threatens us. It is as if we should be afraid of the NATO Pact. Why should we be afraid of the NATO Pact? Are we in any conflict? Have we done anything to challenge anyone, including the NATO Pact? Why are we being threatened? They used to threaten us with imperial ordinances, whereas now they threaten us with the NATO Pact – Vulin said, asking on whose behalf Komšić speaks.
- From this point I ask the gentleman in the NATO Pact, have they been consulted on this, do they think that Serbia should be threatened? Do they think that they should draw some kind of border between Serbs and Serbs and who talked to them about it? Or he speaks for himself only. I have never heard that this is the attitude of the NATO Pact, the minister of defence said.
Minister Vulin wondered “who still believes in good intentions towards Serbia by representatives of Bosniak members of the Presidency - Džaferović and Komšić.
- How did they show that they care about Serbia or peace in the region? By not doing a single thing to help us at least to find out who tried to kill Aleksandar Vučić in Srebrenica? Or by the fact that Željko Komšić, without any support in politics, law, the constitution, or anything else, said that he recognised Kosovo as an independent state and that it was a factual thing for him? That probably says enough about their intentions and what they think of Serbia and the Serbian people” – minister Vulin said.
He reminded that Serbia, then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, during the signing of the Dayton Agreement was not “a witness”.
- It was not a godfather, It was not at the wedding either. It guaranteed, it signed the Dayton Agreement, and when you sign something, you then guarantee the value of your signature and that you will maintain and enforce what you have signed. It explicitly states – the witnesses of the Dayton Agreement are the governments of the United States of America, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation and, on behalf of the European Union, Felipe González. So, they are witnesses while Serbia, that is, then, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Serbia being its legal successor, and Croatia are signatories to the Dayton Agreement – the minister of defence said adding that Serbia guarantees for the implementation of the Dayton Agreement, and therefore for its maintenance and its preservation.
- If this is a problem that Serbia keeps its signature, keeps the Dayton Agreement, and therefore safeguards the Constitution and structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina, then I wonder, what do you want to change? What is the problem and what is controversial about it? What is the thing that Serbia prevents which bothers you so much – minister Vulin asked, confirming that the abolition of Republika Srpska is, to put it clearly, out of the question.
- Not only the abolition of Republika Srpska, but the change of structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is made up of two entities and three equal peoples. What else Serbia should or can do in that case? Should it watch peacefully how the Dayton Agreement is being broken up, the agreement which she guaranteed, or should it pretend not to see if someone tries to abolish Republika Srpska? Željko Komšić says that Republika Srpska does not belong only to Serbs. That is right, but the entity must be preserved as it is for all those who live in Republika Srpska – minister Aleksandar Vulin said and asked what could be controversial about that.
- When interest in the position of the Croatian national minority comes from Croatia, we do not say that it is a strike and an attack on Serbia, we say that it is a reasonable question and a legitimate right of anyone to ask how people live. Is there anything that they can be assisted with, do they need a road, a music school, do they need textbooks? When a question comes from Bosnia and Herzegovina, what is the position of the Bosniak people in our country – does anyone sees it as an attack on Serbs and Serbia, on our constitutional order, the rule of law and legality? On the contrary – the minister of defence said – we say: come and see yourself. Help, open a school, fund a kindergarten, give money for a road, or open a factory. We would never see hostility in that!
He added that they could threaten us with whatever they wanted, the position of Serbia, the politics of Serbia and the uprightness of Serbia shows that they will take care of their countrymen, wherever they live.
- That would not change. You can overthrow me today, the Serbian Progressive Party, as the largest party of our coalition, can deny me confidence and say that it will not vote for me or this strategy, my Socialist Movement can tell that it would not support me and the Serbian people can say that they would not listen any more, they have been listening for seven years every day attacks on me and the hatred that exactly these and such people are pouring on me – so they could say: find another person. And you can try to force, but it is not exactly a man who responds to pressure, Aleksandar Vučić as well, to give up on me and break our coalition cooperation – but you will never be able to find again a minister of defence who will sign the National Security Strategy, in which Serbs and protecting them is not a priority; and in which Republika Srpska is no longer our priority. The threshold is crossed, the door is open, the Serbs will never stop taking care about Republika Srpska and Serbs wherever they live – minister Vulin emphasised and reiterated that neither Storm operation, nor Jasenovac, nor the March pogrom would ever happen again, and that whoever else might be in his place, this policy will never change again.
