Christian Schwarz-Schilling: The West must react to the rhetoric of Dodik and Čović

(Patria) - Never before have Germany and France, the two most important and largest European nations, which are also geographically closest to the Balkans, jointly invited the leaders of the Western Balkans to openly and responsibly discuss our common future, writes Christian Schwarz-Schilling, former High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in an author's text for DW, reports Patria.

Schwarz-Schilling recalls the abysses and catastrophes of the 20th century, which surpass anything previously imaginable in European history. He reminds that immense suffering was inflicted upon the population of Germany and other nations, but also that since the mid-20th century, "we in Europe have been trying, more or less successfully, to determine the reasons and political causes for such an inhuman era and to prepare the continent for the future in such a way that every individual citizen has inalienable human rights in relation to the state and common institutions."

The former High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina recalls that only the former Yugoslavia took a different - its own, fateful path, meaning that the then Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milošević used a new ideology: the desire for the supremacy of the Serbian people over all other peoples in the Balkans, which caused wars.

"The population of the Western Balkans is now waiting for its chance to join Europe as well. Europe showed this path back in 2003 at an important EU summit in Thessaloniki. But today the situation is particularly serious, because ideological struggles are still being waged in these countries.

Milorad Dodik, one of the current members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who holds one entity, namely Republika Srpska, firmly in his grip, has been threatening for years to separate Republika Srpska from BiH and create a separate state out of it. In this endeavor, he closely cooperates with the nationalist party HDZ, by strongly supporting its leader Dragan Čović in his attempt to create a third entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the intention of further dividing the Federation. The goal is for all parts of the Federation where Croats are the majority population to be annexed to Croatia in the long term. And nationalists from Croatia are fighting for this goal in the European Parliament and in Croatia itself," writes Schwarz-Schilling, emphasizing that the West must not underestimate this "rhetoric".

Complete text available at DW.