President of Republika Srpska (RS) Milorad Dodik said in Belgrade Thursday that the forthcoming referendum in that entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) would not be a referendum on the status of RS, but added, however, that he would never deny the right of RS to hold such a referendum at some time.

“The referendum is a problem both as an act and a right, because we might as well call a referendum on climate change and have the right challenged. Our referendum law upholds most of the EU acquis, and we are still being denied the right to hold a referendum,” Dodik said at a roundtable dubbed 'Republika Srpska - Referendum as a Challenge', organized by Tanjug.

Announcing the steps RS would take after its citizens, as is expected, support the view that the functioning of the BiH Court and Prosecutor's Office are violating the Dayton Accord and the interests of RS, Dodik said that the Serb politicians would propose that the Laws on the Court and Prosecutor's Office of BiH be amended and that the article which implies retroactive application be abolished.

Dodik said that the announced RS referendum was a response by a sovereign nation to countless instances of being outvoted in the parliament and to frequent abuses of authority of the Office of the High Representative in BiH (OHR).

RS has a duty to implement the Dayton Accord as it was written, and not as some are wont to interpret its content, and it is precisely the OHR that continually violates the text of the document by taking away jurisdictions from RS and giving them to BiH, to which the document gives authority only in the sphere of foreign policy, Dodik explained.

The RS president recalled that the OHR had intervened in the political and legal system of BiH on more than 200 occasions, taking 56 jurisdictions away from the Serb entity.

Dodik stressed that RS was not against BiH as a confederal-federal state but was certainly against the efforts to centralize the state outside the Dayton Accord.

BiH, which is now a divided state, could be functional in line with the Dayton agreement, if there were enough will to implement it, he said.

“We are not against BiH and its international political capacities and territorial integrity, but we call for respecting the internal regulation which implies the existence of RS and its jurisdictions,” Dodik underscored.

The EU wants a single partner in BiH to talk to, but this, he explained, should not mean withdrawal of jurisdictions of the RS, but rather coordination between the two entities and three constituent nations, he said.

A single partner for talks "in BiH means establishing coordination, but they want majorization, and not coordination. If the majorization is continued, I cannot rule out the RS right to declare its status,” said Dodik.