Komšić: SDP's vote in Mostar gave me hope

(Patria) - The BiH Presidency member visited Stolac yesterday, where he attended the forum "The Significance of March 1st for the State of BiH" organized by the Association of Detainees of Stolac. He spoke about the current situation in our country, the election of the new High Representative, the international community, and also about being declared an undesirable person in certain municipalities.

Speaking about BiH Independence Day, Komšić said that "we must not allow ourselves to be without a state and that it is worth fighting for it, because as long as you have a state, others respect you.".

"It is what it is, you in Stolac know best what it is like, but it is ours, and many people paid the ultimate price for it being ours – with their lives, body parts, destruction of homes and cities, and therefore we are obliged to protect it by remembering everything and being honest about that time," said Komšić.

He pointed out that "today is a strangely fluid time and those who perceive the country as their only exclusive homeland are fragmented and quarreling," and that individuals are "eating away at the state from within like termites.".

"They are trying to undermine the state from within, but also from without. There is hypocrisy in the international community as well; we felt that in 1992, and in the end, the war was concluded with the assistance of the international community," he said.

He added that the concept of "constituent peoples was good for BiH at the moment it was created, that it was an invention of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to protect the state from Zagreb and Belgrade," but that now it is time for the "concept of the individual, a civic concept of equal people in which everyone is protected in the same way.".

Commenting on the elections in Mostar, he said he was glad that "SDP decided as it did and that it gave him hope.".

"It wasn't about settling scores with a political opponent, but it was a more responsible policy. I think that from what happened in Mostar, some lessons can be learned for the left in the future, that despite how much we look at each other askance, I mean SDP and DF, whether there can be a glimmer of hope that there are enough of us who are smart enough, regardless of how much we dislike each other politically, to recognize greater interests," said Komšić.

He pointed out that these elections after 12 years "did not bring change, although there was an opportunity for change through a unified approach of the BH Bloc and the Coalition for Mostar, which was not directed against Croats as a people.".

When asked if the return of Stolac citizens to their homes thwarted the plan for an ethnically clean municipality, Komšić said that "no one can take Stolac away from its citizens.".

"All those imagined borders have been thwarted. Remember Tuđman's napkin, how he drew and scribbled. And today some would like to repeat that, to scribble and tear off pieces and say 'this is mine, not yours'. Stolac is yours. Everything they tried to do through ethnic cleansing, expulsion, and people returned, shows that this policy is not only criminal but also futile," he stated.

Commenting on the election of the new High Representative, he said that "Germany took advantage of the vacuum in the international community, especially with the change of the US administration, and offered Schmidt as its candidate, thereby wanting to show that Germany, or rather Europe, is ready to take care of BiH and the entire region.".

"Whether the EU, through Germany, is ready, I don't know. I would like to see the US and the EU, and London, which is no longer part of the EU story, act jointly here in BiH and the entire region. When things progressed in BiH, all countries were united. As soon as there were disagreements among them, things in BiH began to falter. I met Schmidt in Srebrenica. In a conversation with the German ambassador, I said that I was concerned whether he had the political capacity to handle the situation in BiH. Paddy Ashdown was here. Is he a man whom the White House, the British government, the Kremlin can listen to – we don't know," said Komšić.

Speaking about being declared an undesirable person in certain municipalities, he said it was about "political manipulation and abuse by HDZ.".

"If I thought the people didn't want to see me or hated me, I would question myself. I am aware that this is classic manipulation by HDZ, and this is not the first place where I have been declared a persona non grata, and I keep coming. Who has the right to forbid me from moving around my country, let alone that I am a member of the Presidency; I wasn't born that way. If we have to fight, we will fight. This is all my country, and I want to have the right to walk in it. If someone restricts me, I will strive to settle it if it is personal, if it is political, then it's just talk," Komšić stated.