BANJALUKA, August 16 /SRNA/ – Milorad Dodik, the President of Republika Srpska, sent a letter to the British Ambassador in Bosnia and Herzegovina Edward Ferguson asking the diplomat under who forced him to change his mind about a referendum in Srpska and how could it be that the people of his own country could use referendum as the main democratic instrument and the people of Republika Srpska could not.“Your reaction to our announcement of a referendum on the Day of Republika Srpska has surprised me very much. Not so long ago, when you spoke with me, your opinion was different. You then neither though that our right to referendum, or the question that will be asked was unconstitutional or anti-Dayton, neither did you consider it an unimportant political issue,” the Srpska president says in the letter to Ferguson.
Dodik notes that, on the other hand, Ferguson is an ambassador of the state that has not so long ago promoted the citizens’ right to declare their opinion on important national issues in a referendum.
“Your Excellency, I have to ask – who made you change your mind and how can it be that the people in your homeland may use the referendum as the main instrument of democracy and the people in Republika Srpska may not. I respect the size, significance and power of your country but you should acknowledge our constitutionally guaranteed rights. Brexit shook the world but our referendum has no such intentions or ambitions,” reads the letter.
President Dodik underlines that Republika Srpska only wants to send a message by democratic means that the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot be the place that makes decisions about the origins of Republika Srpska.
“I hope you are aware that the BiH Constitutional Court was formed after Republika Srpska and that it cannot rule about the events or things that happened before its establishment. You should know about these things, because you come from the state whose legislation rests on such principles,” Dodik wrote in the letter to Ambassador Ferguson.
British Ambassador Edward Ferguson has expressed concern over the Srpska authorities’ decision to stage a referendum on the Day of Republika Srpska, saying that the BiH Constitutional Court had given a clear ruling on the matter.
“I am frustrated that once again, the time and energy are wasted on unnecessary legal and political disagreements instead of solving important social and economic challenges, such as the lack of jobs, a daily life struggle for many in BiH,” Ferguson recently told Dnevni Avaz.