Arnaut responds to HDZ's racist attacks

(Patria) - Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Federal Republic of Germany Damir Arnaut responded to what he stated were intensified attacks by HDZ officials and media, which are taking on racist connotations, related to his reaction to the trip of state representative Darijana Filipović on behalf of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a passport from the Republic of Croatia. We are transmitting his reaction in its entirety.

"The Law on Travel Documents of BiH prohibits BiH citizens from crossing the BiH border with passports of another country, with fines ranging from 100 to 400 KM," Arnaut reminds, adding:

"Despite this explicit provision adopted by the state parliament, the representative in that same parliament, Darijana Filipović, informed the services of that parliament that she would travel to the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe as a representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina, using a passport from the Republic of Croatia. These services, ignoring clear legal provisions, informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH and the BiH Border Police about this. The MFA of BiH, disregarding the law, forwarded this to the BiH Embassy in Berlin."

"When I officially warned about this, a well-rehearsed barrage from HDZ officials and portals followed, which was also directed at my family, using racist remarks in the best tradition of the founder of that party's mother organization, who once stated that he was happy because his "wife is neither Serbian nor Jewish". Like insinuations about the 'cultural context' of my wife or claims that our children 'go to mass on Sundays.' They don't! They are children from a mixed marriage, who therefore do not have the right to run for members of the Presidency of BiH, unlike Dragan Čović, who has that right but is afraid to run unless the Election Law of BiH is written so that he will be elected," says Arnaut.

Ambassador Arnaut reminds that this legal provision began to be intensively enforced during the pandemic, when restrictions were introduced on the entry of foreign citizens into Bosnia and Herzegovina and entries with BiH identity cards. "Numerous our people who have dual citizenship appeared at border crossings with foreign passports at that time, presenting other proof of BiH citizenship. Our border police officers allowed them to enter their homeland with those proofs, but also duly issued them misdemeanor orders for using a foreign passport," says Arnaut, illustrating this with numerous media articles from that period.

He adds that at that time, in his capacity as a state parliamentarian, he asked the border police if they were diligently applying that law to state officials as well, "specifically to the then Chief Prosecutor of BiH, now on the black list, Gordana Tadić, whose crossing of the BiH border with a Croatian passport had been announced. The then director of the BiH Border Police, now a fugitive from BiH justice, Zoran Galić, persistently avoided answering," Arnaut emphasizes.

"Therefore, this salvo was not fired because of the example in the attachment: a lady of Croatian nationality whose 'daughter got married in Metković' and who received a misdemeanor order of 200 KM upon returning from the wedding. It was certainly not done because of a Bosniak from Sweden who was fined the same amount. I fought for those people at the time, against Galić, Tadić, and the rest of the HDZ machinery. This salvo was fired because that machinery, today as then, considers itself above the law. That the same rules do not apply to a state representative as to a lady marrying off her daughter," says Arnaut and concludes:

"And as long as they think that, and especially as long as the MFA of BiH supports it by forwarding such correspondence, there is no hope that Borjana Krišto will respect the law and submit the appointment of Nebojša Vukanović. There is no hope that the BiH Border Police will stop other fugitives from BiH justice in high positions. Precisely because of the fear of enforcing the law, the HDZ does not want Vukan in the position of Minister of Security. By the way, even before Filipović, I sent an identical warning regarding the advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who was announced for an official trip on behalf of Bosnia and Herzegovina with a Swedish passport. These are not national issues, but issues of the rule of law. Here, Vukan and I are on one side, and the aforementioned on the other."