ANALYSIS: Why Grabar-Kitarović and Vučić are turning Bosnian Croats and Serbs into diaspora

Serbia is turning Bosnian Serbs into the Serbian diaspora. All these years. From the end of the war against Bosnia and Herzegovina until today. Even though Serbs are an equal, constituent people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  

The authorities in Croatia are using the same tricks. They are turning the constituent Croatian people in BiH into the Croatian diaspora. In Croatia, they would call it the Croatian emigration.

Analysts assess that neighboring Serbia and Croatia thus always keep the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina in a state of tension. Because of this, politics in BiH still depends on the mood in Belgrade and Zagreb. This has been proven true many times so far. There can hardly be any progress in BiH as long as Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats prefer Belgrade and Zagreb to Sarajevo. And, the situation is still such that they do.

The statements by Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić that Serbia has a Dayton obligation towards Serbs in Republika Srpska are not without reason. Vučić repeats this sentence in almost every public appearance. The Prime Minister of Serbia said this again yesterday, as a guest on OBN television, and before visiting the fair in Mostar. He again said that he has the right and obligation to care for Serbs in Republika Srpska. 

However, the Dayton Agreement states otherwise. Serbia does not have an obligation towards Serbs in RS. It has an obligation to implement the Dayton Peace Agreement. And that means it has an obligation to ensure the rights of all constituent peoples in RS. Serbs, Bosniaks, and Croats. Equally. 

The statements of Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović are similar to Vučić's. 

- We in Croatia have a special duty, a constitutional definition, and a moral obligation to help Croats in BiH to fully realize all their rights as a constituent and equal people in order to create a prerequisite for young people to stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and not to go to other parts of the world, just as young people from Croatia are leaving - Grabar Kitarović conveyed during her last visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

After such statements, it is expected that Bosnian Croats will develop a feeling towards Croatia as a protective country. And that their relationship with Bosnia and Herzegovina will cool down. 

The policy of neighboring countries towards BiH has not changed much from the 1990s to today. Except that the member of the BiH Presidency from the Croatian people opened an office in Mostar. (aa)