Komšić: The fate of BiH is in the hands of those of us who live here

(Patria) - Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Željka Komšić addressed the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the occasion of the celebration of November 25, Statehood Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"This November 25, we mark the 78th anniversary of the renewed statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is, we remember the first session of the State Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was held in Mrkonjić Grad. The statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina was renewed under conditions of fascist occupation and terror by domestic quislings who were infatuated with great-state and nationalist ideas and programs. Unfortunately, they have not yet been defeated, and today they continue with their policy of sowing hatred and the policy of destroying the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Seventy-eight years ago, these policies suffered a political defeat at the first session of ZAVNOBiH, and later a military defeat.

Victory was achieved by the anti-fascist policy of the National Liberation Movement, led by Supreme Commander Josip Broz Tito, which gathered the broadest strata of the population around it and was an integrative factor. That policy did not insist on ideological divisions, but on unity in resistance to the occupier and traitors of the state. That is why it succeeded then.

The success of that policy at the time was not only in the victory of civilization over anti-civilization, although in a symbolic sense it is the most important. That success was concrete and tangible. One of the greatest, and in fact the most important, achievements of ZAVNOBiH is the beginning of the construction of the institutions of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Without institutions of government, which, admittedly, were initially only political, Bosnia and Herzegovina could not have come to life as a Republic, nor would there ever have been a possibility for the international recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina as an independent state.

The hallmark of today's anniversary is precisely the attacks on the institutions of the state. The attacks come precisely from those policies that, during the aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, suspended ZAVNOBiH in the part of the territory they control. First, they suspended it as a value by committing crimes against the state and its citizens, and then officially through documents. And that was no coincidence. Only that assembly could declare invalid the principles of anti-fascism woven into the foundations of statehood, which then, like some today, sought to place itself above the state and from that position disempower it with the aim of destruction. The historical assessment of such policies was given by the verdicts of international courts. However, verdicts only establish facts and nothing more. It remains for those of us who are for the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina to draw lessons.

I dare say we have not drawn lessons, because we have been brought before the same challenges again. Before the challenge of how and in what way to prevent attacks on the institutions of the state, whose construction began with ZAVNOBiH, while preserving what is most important after the state, and that is peace. Preserving the state will only be possible if we unite and if we finally stop tolerating or finding various kinds of justifications for those who do not even hide their intention to tear apart the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

There is no justification for the continuous undermining of state institutions, and anyone who tries to relativize or justify such conduct is not doing good for this state, not to mention a harsher word that would be inappropriate on this holiday. The enemies of this state must know that by continuing to attack its institutions, they risk everything and will gain nothing.

ZAVNOBiH contains another important lesson, which says that the historical experience of the struggle for the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina teaches us that we must, first and foremost, rely on our own forces. The Allies did not gift victory and the state to the National Liberation Movement, which renewed the statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina; rather, the NOP achieved that victory through great hardship and heavy sacrifices, which was ultimately recognized and respected.

Nor was this Bosnia and Herzegovina, which continues its state-legal continuity under the Dayton Constitution, given to us as a gift; it was fought for. Therefore, we must never lose sight of the following: no matter what attacks on the state and its institutions are carried out, or what solutions for a definitive ethnic division of the state are offered, none of that will happen if we ourselves do not give up on our own state.

I am convinced not only that we will not give up on the state, but that we will defend it and its institutions by all democratic means. The fate of our state is not in the hands of those we too often beg for help, but in the hands of those of us who live here and who will stay with it no matter what happens. Being with your state, unconditionally and without calculation, is a matter of one's own dignity, and that is something that can never and will never be taken away from us.

No matter how much many try to attribute every individual failure to the failure of the state, or characterize every individual success as a success despite the state, they will never succeed in making the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina loathe their own homeland. They will not succeed in convincing them that this piece of land under the sky should be exchanged for another in order to live more happily. Bosnia and Herzegovina has withstood greater bullies than those who spread every kind of defeatism, apathy, and all-encompassing criticism aimed at convincing the majority of citizens of this state that the state is not a value.

Its thousand-year existence as it is best refutes and continues to do so. It will continue even when we as individuals are no longer here, because a generation of Bosnians and Herzegovinians is coming, and is yet to come, that has enough of its own dignity, courage, and strength to defend the state and build a democratic society of equal citizens. I believe that!"