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Thousands attend Kosovo rally in Banja Luka 28 March 2008 | 11:33 | Source: Beta BANJA LUKA -- Several thousand people have attended a rally entitled "Kosovo is Serbia, let the Republic of Srpska be independent." The Serb "The Choice is Ours" movement organized yesterday's meeting in Banja Luka and initiated the signing of a petition for the declaration of the Republic of Srpska's (RS) independence. Movement President Dane Canovic said that the RS needed to secede from the "imposed Bosnia-Herzegovina," adding that standards would improve as an independent country, with more political stability and security. "We need to tell the world that the Serbs are very unhappy with their position in the Balkans. Minority communities are creating states on Serbian territory, while at the same time, the Serb national issue has not been resolved in its entirety," he explained. Canovic said that the Serbs had agreed to the Dayton Accords with "heavy hearts," and that little was left of the RS's statehood since the agreement's conclusion. He said that the citizens of the Serb entity "are no longer staying silent, while the family of the first president of the RS is being harassed," alluding to the searches conducted this week of homes belonging to Hague fugitive Radovan Karadzic's family. The protesters at the rally carried banners with slogans such as "Kosovo, the Most Expensive Serbian Word", "We Will Keep Fighting", "We Will Give Up Bosnia for Srpska", while pictures of Russian President Vladimir Putin were also visible. There was a large police presence in Banja Luka during the rally, especially in the street leading to the U.S. embassy in Banja Luka, which was attacked in earlier protests following Kosovo's unilateral independence declaration. There were no incidents reported at the rally.
