Čović Condemns Chetnik Gathering on Twitter, but Opposed State Condemnation of Fascism in Parliament

SARAJEVO, (Patria) – The President of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina and delegate in the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dragan Čović, condemned on Twitter the gathering of members of the Ravna Gora Chetnik Movement in Višegrad. 

„I express deep condemnation of the recent Chetnik gathering in Višegrad! There is no place for hatred and violence in our homeland,“ wrote Čović.
Just a day earlier, Čović did not support the initiative for the House of Peoples to condemn the Chetnik gathering in Višegrad. Delegate of the Croat Club Zlatko Miletić (DF) requested on Tuesday that an agenda item be included to condemn the Chetnik formation in Višegrad, but the initiative was rejected. Voting against it were delegates from the Serb Club, as well as four delegates from the Croat Club, including Dragan Čović.

The editor of the portal Tačno.net from Mostar, Štefica Galić, stated for the Patria agency that the behavior of politicians regarding the Chetnik formation did not surprise her. 

„Those parties are followers of fascist ideologies, whose representatives formed up without hindrance,“ said Galić, adding that there is no law in Bosnia and Herzegovina prohibiting the promotion of fascist ideology, but she points out that laws are made precisely by representatives of the same political parties. 

 „It is a short step from formation to bloodshed, as we witnessed two decades ago,“ warns Galić.

Members of the Ravna Gora Chetnik Movement in Višegrad marked on Sunday the anniversary of the arrest of Chetnik general and World War II war criminal Dragoljub Draža Mihailović, from where the song „There will be hell again and the bloody Drina, here come the Chetniks from the Serbian mountains“ was heard. 

Numerous domestic and international organizations, including the OHR and foreign embassies, condemned such messages from Višegrad, but the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina refused to condemn the events in Višegrad, Patria reports.