Anniversary of Boban's Death: Čović at the grave of the man who divided BiH with Karadžić

The 18th anniversary of the death of Mate Boban, former president of the so-called Croatian Community of Herceg-Bosnia, the Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosnia, and HDZ BiH, was marked last night in Grude, writes the Patria News Agency.

As announced by HDZ, a memorial mass was held in the Church of St. Stephen the Protomartyr Gorica - Sovići, followed by the laying of wreaths and lighting of candles at Boban's grave.

A delegation of the HDZ, led by President Dragan Čović, attended the mass and the wreath-laying ceremony.

Photo: HDZ BiH

Mate Boban was the first president of the self-proclaimed Croatian Community of Herceg-Bosnia. In numerous indictments before the Hague Tribunal, he was identified as part of a joint criminal enterprise, which involved the creation of a Croatian state from parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Herzegovina and Central Bosnia through the ethnic cleansing of the Bosniak population.

Twenty-three years ago, on May 6, war criminal Radovan Karadžić and Mate Boban met in the Austrian city of Graz. The meeting was secret, although the international community knew everything that happened that day at the airport in Austria, what was agreed upon, and what would follow, but they did not find sufficient reason to react.

On that day in 1992, the two agreed to divide Bosnia. They agreed to cease hostilities between the two armies they commanded and established front lines that remained largely the same until the end of the war in 1995.

The Hague Prosecutor's Office claimed that this meeting was crucial for what happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war and that it was a continuation of the meeting in Karađorđevo in March 1991, when Franjo Tuđman and Slobodan Milošević met.

Later, on May 12, 1992, part of what was agreed upon was confirmed at a session of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska with the adoption of the Six Strategic Goals (division of Sarajevo; separation of the "Serb people from the other two national communities"; establishment of a corridor between Semberija and Krajina, a corridor in the Drina River valley, "i.e., the elimination of the Drina as a border between Serbian states"; establishment of a border on the rivers Una and Neretva, and ensuring the access of Republika Srpska to the sea).