Čubrilović: The era of sanctions is behind us, all disputes should be resolved through dialogue, respecting the law

President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska Nedeljko Čubrilović said today, commenting US sanctions imposed on the president Milorad Dodik, that sanctions are unacceptable and, as it turned out in practice, never brought solutions and progress.

"This is not the first time that sanctions were imposed on an official of the Republic of Srpska. And in the past we have had sanctions and even dismissal of a President of the Republic and the President of the National Assembly. It has been proved that continuous sanctions never led to progress, not social nor economic, nor the strengthening of democratic capacities. All disagreements and all problems can be resolved only through dialogue, " said the president of the National Assembly.

He said that it is worrying that the sanctions as a rigid, undemocratic measure were imposed because of the highest respect for democratic institutions, such as referendum.

"One of the conditions of the US administration which, according to his own statement,  the President of the Republic of Srpska received was to suspend the work on drafting legislations with the aim of reforming the Constitutional Court, as provided by the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the replacement of international judges with judges from BiH. If the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Srpska were chosen in democratic elections, how it is possible to deprive their democratic right to propose changes to the law in their country. This is not the reason for the introduction of sanctions, and I especially want to emphasize that all political parties from the Republic of Srpska share this view,”  pointed out Čubrilović.

He added that the request that Dodik received from representatives of the US administration to prevent the publication of the results of the referendum in the "Official Gazette of the Republic of Serpska" is undemocratic, since the publication of the results of a democratic vote by citizens of the Republic of Srpska is a legal obligation.

"No one in this country, not even the President of the Republic can break the law, regardless of that who set the requirement before him," said the president of the National Assembly.

He once again called for dialogue and respect for the democratic will of the people expressed in elections, stressing that only by talking and equal respect for the views of all stakeholders of political life in BiH and the Republic of Srpska a solution can be achived to all outstanding issues.

Relations should be built through dialogue and respect for the rule of law and the basic principles of international law,” said Čubrilović.

President of the National Assembly of the Republic expressed the hope that this situation will, however, be resolved in a positive way and that the US will continue to protect the Dayton Peace Agreement and build good relations with the Republic of Srpska and its officials, for peace and stability in BiH and the region.

"It would not be good to continue to intensify relations. The situation needs to calm down and we should try to solve this problem in direct talks with representatives of US administration and eliminate all misunderstandings,” concluded Čubrilović.