Foreign Minister on 30 Years of Dayton Accords: We Will Not Accept Dissolution of Republika Srpska, but Will Always Extend Hand of Cooperation

Marko Djuric (BETAPHOTO/Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

In a Dec. 14 opinion piece three decades after the Dayton Agreement was signed in Paris, Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric said that he was sending a message to all nations in the region that Serbia would never accept the dissolution of Republika Srpska.

In the editorial in the Politika daily, which made the anniversary its topic of the week, he went on to say that Serbia would still always extend a hand of cooperation for shared projects -- from highways to jointly marketing on the global market. "I know that everyone cares about the equality of our peoples in [Bosnia and Herzegovina], so let us defend that equality together, within Dayton, not against it," Djuric wrote, pleading for the international community to stop its selective justice and selective empathy.

"Peace in the Balkans will not endure if one people always feels degraded. I am not ashamed to say that I am a Serb first and that I will always defend Serbian national interests. But I am also proud to be able to say that today I am one of the biggest advocates of reconciliation in the Balkans," the minister stressed.

"Let this 30th anniversary of Dayton be the beginning of a new era -- an era in which we will finally close the chapter of war and open the chapter of a shared future. An era in which each tear, each mother, each victim, whatever their surname and given name, will be equally honored. An era in which children in Sarajevo, Banjaluka, Mostar, Belgrade will learn he same lesson -- that peace is the greatest victory we have won together," Djuric said.