The President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, warned about the possibility of secession from Bosnia-Herzegovina and union with Serbia.
He spoke on the occasion of the day of commemoration of the 700,000 victims of the infamous Jasenovac camp, in Donja Gradina, which was also attended by the Serbian president, Aleksandër Vucic.
As he drew parallels between the crimes committed during the Second World War and those in the last war in Yugoslavia, Dodik declared that the past century was the one of Serbian suffering, while the current century will be the one of Serbian unity.
" We are here from Republika Srpska because we belong to a nation and one day we will be a state. No one will stop us from doing this because it is our right and our history.
The state is a key word in our freedom and therefore we want to clearly say that there are no illusions or threats to anyone when the Republika Srpska expresses its popular will to form its own state, because we cannot live in Bosnia-Herzegovina, state that oppresses us and threatens our freedoms , "said Dodik.
He estimated that the Serbs "cannot survive in these areas, if the Republika Srpska does not become independent in the following years".