Komšić calls on Zagreb and Belgrade for talks: Abandon the division of BiH, it is a suicidal policy

LJUBLJANA, (Patria) - The political stance of official Zagreb is created in western Mostar, and Zagreb is merely a transmission for presenting these matters," said a member of the BiH Presidency Željko Komšić regarding the reasons for the current poor Croatian policy towards BiH, speaking in Ljubljana at the conference "The Future of Bosnia and Herzegovina: How to Accelerate EU and NATO Integrations?" organized by the International Institute for Middle Eastern and Balkan Studies (IFIMES).

Komšić spoke about the importance of Bosnia and Herzegovina becoming a member of the EU and NATO alliance, but also about the problems the country and its citizens face on that path.

"Why it is so, could be discussed - we who are involved in politics have some information, prosecutors and judges have other information," said Komšić, reports Patria agency.

As long as this is the case, Komšić said, there will be problems in the relations between Zagreb and Sarajevo.

"There will be problems and there are, which in my opinion is completely wrong, because Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, or Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, are destined for each other. We cannot escape from each other even if we wanted to. The only normal path is to talk and cooperate," said Komšić.

The member of the BiH Presidency stated that any other policy is immature, a suicidal policy, and that all strongmen who at one point thought they could gain something /divide BiH/ ended up in The Hague.

"Why are we returning to something that has historically failed, why don't we turn to solving problems," asked Komšić, reminding that Serbia and Croatia have enough of their own problems and should not deal with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"Bosnia and Herzegovina has always had the strength and wisdom to survive," said Komšić, emphasizing that the peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina are not enemies to each other.

"We in Bosnia and Herzegovina did not start the war in 1992, that war was started by our neighbors," stated Komšić, asking neighboring countries to abandon the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina and let the citizens within the country regulate their relations.

"Aleksandar Vučić does not need to tell me what Milorad Dodik is like, because Dodik and I know each other better than Aleksandar Vučić will ever know us, nor does anyone from Zagreb need to explain to me what Dragan Čović is like," said Komšić.

"We can only agree if we forget what caused the deaths in '92, and they died only because there were such strongmen who thought they could break up Bosnia and Herzegovina," said the member of the BiH Presidency Željko Komšić, and called on Zagreb and Belgrade to cooperate.

Komšić said that Bosnia and Herzegovina also needs the help of European institutions, but that this help must not be only rhetorical and with double standards, as, Komšić stated, has often been the case so far.

"We need the help of European institutions on our EU path. But, we don't just need messages, we need concrete action in BiH. I have too often been in a situation to witness double standards of European officials towards BiH. There is no progress with such a policy," said Komšić.