Dacic: Claims Assembly conclusions erode Dayton Agreement are hypocritical

BELGRADE - Reactions to the All-Serbian Assembly alleging that its conclusions erode the Dayton Agreement are hypocritical because, throughout all these years, we have witnessed the agreement being deliberately eroded by those who are now criticising the Assembly, Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said on Tuesday.

Speaking to Pink TV, Dacic said some big powers and Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina had never been able to get over the fact the Dayton Agreement had been signed at all.

"The solutions that were reached in the agreement were not invented by anyone here, they are an American proposal and the Dayton Agreement is the brainchild of the US. They came up with the Dayton Agreement, in which they clearly laid down the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is unchangeable without the consent of all three peoples and both entities," Dacic noted.

"They wanted to relativise the agreement by constantly reducing the framework of Republika Srpska powers and trying to transfer the powers to some central level, believing that they can outvote the Serbs at that central level," Dacic added.

"Throughout all these years, we have been witnessing Republika Srpska being attacked and declared genocidal, as well as attempts of imposing unitarism in Bosnia and Herzegovina," he said.

"Bosnia and Herzegovina is not based on that principle, but on the principle of equality of all three peoples and both entities. That means they have never accepted the Dayton Agreement, but now someone comes and criticises the Assembly even though the number one starting point in the declaration adopted at it is that we respect the Dayton Agreement and advocate all rights of the Serbs and the Serb entity based on that agreement," Dacic said.

Dacic noted that the declaration made no mention of the much-discussed issue of disassociation to avoid the possibility of it being misused.