Čović's policeman Marić angry because criminals cannot freely rampage through Mostar: Let us work in peace without doing our job!

Written by: Rasim Belko @rasimbelko

I consider it my duty to warn about these phenomena which I do not consider harmless. I will be honest and clearly state that I assume what is currently underway is an announcement and an attempt at a disgusting collection of pre-election points at the expense of peace and security of the citizens of Mostar and all of Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, the fact that it is in bad taste is a lesser harm compared to the fact of how dangerous the path some individuals have taken is. In this case as well, the police professionally and quickly did their job, the investigation was conducted, it showed results, but it is up to the public to recognize those who want to build sensations and their political career on a sad event involving minors,” stated the Minister of Interior of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, Marijo Marić, in a statement for Bljesak.

I do not know if the word "impudent" is sufficient to describe the attitude of the HDZ Minister of Interior, but it is certainly on the verge of crossing from impudent into idiotic behavior. Because, a minister who should be concerned about security in the canton with the strongest ethnic divisions would rather have all politicians, media, and experts remain silent about the wide range of crime, because it does not suit him as Minister of Interior.

Because, Marić says, the investigation has been conducted, so, we would have nothing more to say or comment on. Specifically, he refers to the investigation concerning the brutal attack on a 13-year-old boy because of the inscription on his shirt “Long live Mostar, our state”. Because of that inscription, the boy was beaten on his arms with a telescopic baton, and Minister Marić is angry because the public is asking how long attacks in the city on the Neretva, motivated by fan clashes with a whiff of politics, will continue.

Who Marić accuses of collecting political points in such cases, I do not know, but I am sure that the citizens of Mostar, whatever their name, would be happy if Minister Marić collected points through quick results of investigations and bringing criminals to justice.

However, Marić is far from that, because his “investigation has been conducted” no longer holds water. If we step back from the settling of scores along ethnic-fan lines and return to the attack on the Partisan Cemetery in Mostar, it will be clear to us what Marić’s “investigation has been conducted” entails. For two years, those professionals, as Marić calls his police officers, have been unable to find those responsible for the complete devastation of the Partisan Cemetery.

Those professionals failed, after a “conducted investigation”, to discover who followed and, threatening with a gun, stole fan banners from a Velež supporter. They also failed to solve the previous theft of banners from Zrinjski fans. Children are being beaten in the place of Baćevići, where returnees of Serbian nationality live. They are attacked and threatened because they did not want to look at fascist-Ustasha stickers, so they removed them. “The investigation has been conducted,” Marić would now tell us.

Mostar is an unsafe city, not because of what the media publish or what politicians comment on. Quite the opposite. Mostar residents feel unsafe precisely because politics has imposed on them a Minister of Interior for whom a case is resolved if “the investigation has been conducted”. The fact that the public has been waiting for two years to find out who last destroyed the Partisan Cemetery, and never learned about the previous attacks, the fact that returnees and everyone else live in fear, is not very important to Marić.

What is important to him is that no dust is raised, because as a political reptile he functions best when hidden from the public eye, when he does not have to face questions of security. Because, insecurity for others in the “table Croatian” city is the political guideline of those who installed him!