Comment & Debate
William Montgomery. “The Future of the Republika Srpska”. B92 – The second is the “Montenegrin Option,” where the leading parties simply start to treat the Bosnian national government and the Federation exactly the same as Montenegro treated Serbia for the past three years. The point would be to look to a date in the future for a Referendum on the future of the Republika Srpska. This argument would be considerably strengthened by the declaration of an independent Kosovo, an area of Serbia, which never had the status of Republic. This would, at least in the eyes of many Serbs, set a precedent for the RS.
Barry Wood. “Bosnian Serbs Renew Nationalist Rhetoric in Run-up to Election”. VOA News. 18 Sept. 2006 – Seska Stanojlovic is foreign editor of the news weekly, Vreme, in Belgrade.
She says, for Serbs, the situation in Bosnia is directly linked to what is likely to happen in Kosovo, the Albanian majority U.N.-administered province that is seeking independence from Serbia.
Stanojlovic believes that, if Kosovo is put on a path to independence, Serbian leaders could join in calling for a referendum among Serbs in Bosnia, an idea that has been floated by Dodik.
“They think this is the right moment to publicly say that Republika Srpska has the same right as the Kosovo Albanians have now,” said Seska Stanojlovic.
President of Coordination Center for Kosovo, Sanda Raskovic-Ivic told RS television in the summer of 2006 – “If Kosovo and Metohija gain independence, then the same right should be granted to RS, Trans-Dnestr region, Aphasia, Catalonia…”.[1]