Dragan Čović jedini političar iz BiH koji se nije oglasio nakon presude Karadžiću

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The President of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH), Dragan Čović, is the only politician from a parliamentary party in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) who did not comment on the verdict against Radovan Karadžić, the first president of the Republika Srpska (RS), an entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, whom the Hague court sentenced on Wednesday to life imprisonment for the genocide in Srebrenica and other crimes on the territory of BiH, including the expulsion of Bosniaks and Croats from several municipalities in the country during the war in the 1990s.

During the war in BiH, around 135,000 Croats were expelled from the area of today's RS, while some were tortured or killed. Of the pre-war 150,000 Croats who lived in the area of today's RS, only 15,000 live in that part of the country today.

The number of expelled Bosniaks from the area that was under the control of Karadžić's government is even higher.

The President of the Democratic Front (DF), Željko Komšić, stated that the verdict against Karadžić represents a minimum of justice for all victims, Bosniaks and Croats, who were systematically exterminated as part of the genocidal project of creating the Republika Srpska, while the leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Nermin Nikšić, sent a similar message. "Life imprisonment for Karadžić is the only punishment to ensure a minimum of justice for the victims," said the President of the SDP.

Messages of support for the life imprisonment verdict against Karadžić came from the Republic of Croatia and from part of the opposition in Serbia. For President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, the verdict is a "permanent warning," while Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković stated that he "regrets that the council did not link the crimes in BiH with the political and military leadership of the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) headed by Slobodan Milošević."

Former Serbian Defense Minister Dragan Šutanovac said that Radovan Karadžić's policy "plunged both his own and other peoples into mourning," while the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Čedomir Jovanović, proposed that July 11, the day the genocide in Srebrenica was committed, be declared a Day of Remembrance in Serbia as well. The verdict against Karadžić was also welcomed by the President of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV), Nenad Čanak from Novi Sad.

Reactions also came from the European Union, stating that the lesson to be drawn from the verdict is that crime cannot go unpunished.

From the Republika Srpska, they rejected the verdict against Radovan Karadžić, calling it a political verdict against Serbs, while the President of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), the leading party in the RS and a member of the BiH Presidency, Milorad Dodik, called the verdict hypocritical.

Analysts link Čović's silence on the Karadžić verdict to the friendly relationship between Čović and Dodik, as well as Čović's good relations with the political leadership of Serbia, which also did not state its position on the verdict against the former RS president even 24 hours after the verdict.

Dragan Čović came into the spotlight of the domestic and neighboring Croatian public at the beginning of the year, when he attended the celebration of the Day of the RS in Banja Luka, where Slavko Lisica, a Major General of the Army of the RS previously convicted of crimes on the territory of Croatia, was posthumously awarded.