BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s populist president appealed Saturday for peace and harmony in the Balkans but Bosnian Serb separatist leader He organized large nationalist rallies calling for the “unity” of all Serbs in the region, a message that raised eyebrows in neighboring countries.
The “All-Serb Rally”, under the slogan “One nation, one rally”, was attended by thousands of Bosnian Serbs as well as people from neighbouring countries such as Montenegro and North Macedonia who had travelled to the Serbian capital, Belgrade.
The meeting took place just weeks after the United Nations General Assembly voted to designate July 11 of each year as an International Day of Reflection and Remembrance. The 1995 Srebrenica genocide The massacre of over 8,000 Bosnian Muslim boys and men by Bosnian Serb forces. Serbia and Bosnian Serbs I strongly opposed its adoption.
Saturday’s rally featured Orthodox prayers and folk dancing, and conveyed the message that Serbs are one people working toward the same goals, no matter where they live.
“The All-Serbian Assembly notes that the Serbian people represents a single entity. Throughout history, the Serbian people has had several statehoods under different names and has the right to cherish its rich traditions,” the resolution adopted by the General Assembly read.
Many historians and analysts say the idea put forward by Serb nationalists that all Serbs in the Western Balkans should belong to the same political bloc and live in a common state led to the collapse of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Such ideas are emerging again in Serbia, but increasingly authoritarian President Aleksandar Vucic and Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik on Saturday sought to downplay any threat the Belgrade meeting poses to the region.
Dodik, who took part in the rally shortly after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, has consistently said Bosnian Serb-controlled areas should secede from the loose union and join neighbouring Serbia.
“The coming multipolar world is different from the old world dominated by one side (the West) and we have to understand that relationship,” Dodik said, adding that Vucic “understands this better than anyone else.”
Vucic said Serbia would never abandon the Bosnian Serbs.
“All I ask of you is that you follow the Dayton agreement and try everything peacefully, talking to all other countries (in Bosnia), and resolve all the issues,” Vucic said, referring to the U.S.-led peace accord that ended the 1992-1995 war.
The United States has imposed sanctions on Dodik for his separatist actions and has said it will use all means to protect Bosnian unity.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov implicitly supported Bosnian Serb separatists in a message to participants at the Belgrade rally.
“Russia will never turn a blind eye to any injustices against the fraternal Serbian people, attempts to demonize them and trample on their legitimate rights,” Lavrov said.
“Together with other freedom-loving countries, we will continue to build a new world order based on equality, dialogue, mutual respect and mutual recognition of interests,” Lavrov said.
Western officials believe Russia is trying to destabilize the Balkans to distract attention from the war in Ukraine, and while Serbia formally seeks European Union membership, it has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia.
