Izetbegović: Mentor of the Three Michael Murphy is trying to help a failed project from retirement

(Patria) - The claim by former US Ambassador Michael Murphy that I agreed to, suggested, or hinted at the possibility of dividing Bosnia and Herzegovina in any way during the talks on constitutional and electoral reform in 2021 and 2022 is completely unfounded and an unconvincing lie, stated SDA President Bakir Izetbegović in his reaction after media reported on the statement of former US Ambassador Michael Murphy.

"I have never discussed the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the US administration, nor with any other international interlocutor. No one even mentioned such a thing, let alone proposed it. The topic of discussion during that period was exclusively the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the demands of HDZ BiH, which I rejected precisely because they would lead to further ethnic divisions and the cementing of discrimination. There are numerous witnesses to this, including the participants of the negotiations in Neum.

Therefore, I call on Michael Murphy to present evidence to the public for his claim. Let him show the minutes, official notes, recording, or any document that confirms what he said. All those conversations were certainly recorded. If there is no evidence or witnesses, and there won't be any, then it is a deliberate lie by a former diplomat who is trying to retroactively justify his own failures in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Murphy had previously, while serving as ambassador to BiH, made untrue statements about SDA. He claimed that SDA is financed by the money of criminals. He claimed that OSA, on the orders of SDA, was eavesdropping on political opponents through BH Telecom. This thesis was later repeated by the cadres of the Three, only to be later denied by the very people whom the Three appointed to the leadership of BH Telecom. So, this is not the first time Michael Murphy has made serious accusations without evidence. Unfortunately, it has become his political pattern.

It is particularly indicative that Murphy, right now, after the announcement of my candidacy, has "remembered" an alleged event from five years ago that never happened. It is obvious that the mentor of the Three is trying to help a failed project from retirement, a project he himself politically installed. That project has completely collapsed, and Murphy is now trying to divert attention from the catastrophic situation his policies have produced with new lies," Izetbegović stated.

He further points out that Michael Murphy bears direct political responsibility for part of the current chaos in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"Instead of admitting that the policy of pressure, blackmail, labeling SDA, and imposing the Three has produced an institutional crisis, weakened the pro-Bosnian bloc, and encouraged separatist policies, he is trying to falsify events and invent statements.

It is particularly unserious for the former ambassador of a great power to introduce formulations like "perhaps" into public discourse. A diplomat who uses the word "perhaps" when accusing someone of agreeing to the division of the country is not presenting facts, but gossip. By that logic, one could say that "perhaps" Murphy was influenced by various lobbying, political, or interest centers that wanted to confront SDA, like those documented in the Sky application. But serious people do not build politics on the word "perhaps." Serious people present evidence.

Bosnia and Herzegovina was and will remain a whole country. Those who defended it when it was most difficult have no one to justify themselves to, least of all to those who, with their political experiments, have opened the door to forces that are openly attacking it today," stated the SDA president.