Milorad Dodik, President of the Republika Srpska, said that while the separation of Crimea from Ukraine is defensible, that of Kosovo from Serbia was not.
Belgrade
Milorad Dodik hailed Crimea’s secession from Ukraine and its decision to join Russia as legal – unlike Kosovo’s secession from Serbia.
“The decision on Kosovo’s illegal declaration of independence was adopted [in 2008] by a group of individuals who declared themselves the parliament but did not include representatives from the entire territory of Kosovo,” Dodik said.
“Had Kosovo followed the procedures observed by Crimea, I would gladly say that this was the people’s right to self-determination because I want to affirm this right for all peoples and nations,” Dodik added.
The Bosnian Serb leader spoke after 96.8 per cent of those who voted on Sunday in a referendum in Crimea backed calls to join the Russian Federation.
Dodik congratulated the people of Crimea on what he called a democratic and fair referendum and greeted their decision to declare independence and their subsequent agreement to join the Russian Federation.
According to Dodik, the people of Crimea staged a legitimate democratic referendum in keeping with international laws and the UN Charter on the right of the people to self-determination.
On the other side, Russian President Vladimir Putin has justified the Crimean secession from Ukraine by referring to Kosovo’s secession from Serbia.
“In a situation absolutely the same as the one in Crimea they [the West] recognized Kosovo’s secession from Serbia as legitimate, arguing that no permission from a country’s central authority for a unilateral declaration of independence is necessary,” Putin said.
However, Russia has strongly opposed Kosovo’s independence, citing the need to uphold the territorial integrity of Serbia.
Dodik, who opposes Kosovo’s independence while championing Bosnian Serb secession from Bosnia, has long dangled the possibility of holding a referendum on secession in his entity – one of two in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
