Little Man Čović – Engineer of Herceg-Bosna

By Sead Omeragić

Dragan Čović is a kind of anti-anti-fascist. When he appeared at the Hague Tribunal before Karmel Agius, President of the ICTY, it was known that he was plotting something. After that, he visited Jadranko Prlić, Slobodan Praljak, and other political, military, and police leaders of Herceg-Bosna. It was one of the most tragic episodes in the life of anti-Dragan anti-Čović, after he took prisoners from concentration camps and sent them to forced labor in the Sokol factories.

Therefore, Čović violated international law, and then used his political position to meet with a man who must uphold his integrity as the president of an international court. Karmel Agius is a person superior to a number of the world's greatest jurists, and this fact must be respected at least. The visit to already convicted war criminals raised the question of Čović's credibility as a member of the BiH Presidency.

On August 28, 2016, Čović went in the same direction: He marked the crime of the 'six' from Scheveningen, who are awaiting confirmation of their sentences for crimes. In Croatia, they hoped that their 'six' would receive the 'reward' that Šešelj received. However, no one questions the treatment of Prlić and the other five after the first-instance verdict. Namely, the president of the Trial Chamber in the first-instance verdict in the case of Prlić and others was none other than Jean-Claude Antonetti, the acquitter of Vojislav Šešelj.

However, other judges strongly opposed this French judge. Antonetti was tried for corruption in the government of French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. Even today, it is talked about at the Tribunal how citizens of France celebrated his departure from power, specifically from the Ministry of Justice, in media comments, and lamented the Tribunal and the justice he would dispense there. Statements on the portals of French media are still visible and easily verifiable today.

Since Čović usually publicly washes himself clean and justifies himself after every suspicious anti-anti-fascism, he tried to package his visit to the Tribunal in European terms. With Agius, he spoke bilaterally about Bosnia and Herzegovina's progress in European integration, and then visited those who had set this country back completely. We don't know if the entry of BiH into the European Union was discussed in the cells of Scheveningen, or if Prlić's informant informed those present about his efforts. But it was also clear to Čović that his hosts were eagerly awaiting their integration back into Bosnia and Herzegovina from Europe.

Did Čović convey the Tribunal's efforts to keep Prlić and the five convicted in the first instance for a criminal enterprise in the European Union for life? BiH's European integration started with refugees, who saved their lives thanks to the efforts of Prlić and others, and true integration only began with the settling of the Scheveningen prison. If Herceg-Bosna was created by criminals through crime, then it is a criminal project. Dragan Čović first visited the creators of Herceg-Bosna at the Tribunal, and then marked the anniversary of their project. The problem is that the projects of Dodik and Čović cannot be separated from the crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity.

It is rumored in the corridors that Čović and Dodik hope that Europe will not accept a country with a Muslim majority. Fortunately, Europe is neither a refuge for criminals nor for criminal projects that Milorad Dodik and Dragan Čović are offering it today as an alternative in the form of RS and Herceg-Bosna.

Even Zoran Milanović's recent opinion at the meeting with veterans was full of doubt about any chances that Prlić and Čović's other hosts from Scheveningen would be acquitted of charges for concentration camps, murders, and the destruction of cities in Herzegovina.

Čović's commemoration of the anniversary of Herceg-Bosna, a horrific creation in the history of the Croatian people, will one day have to be treated as an endorsement of crimes. Čović today hopes that his practical mentor Milorad Dodik will achieve his goal. Of course, Dodik can only lose his criminal creation if Čović were to treat RS as a grave of the Croatian people, which it is in its 'deep earthly essence'. But Čović has found his friend Dodik, just as his predecessors once found theirs: Tuđman - Milošević, Boban - Karadžić, Prlić - Lukić. None of these pairs managed to realize the idea of dividing Bosnia and Herzegovina. So, will Čović and Dodik succeed?

Dodik no longer even mentions Radovan Karadžić, after the 40 years of imprisonment this man received for the criminal creation of Republika Srpska and dozens of death concentration camps. Čović could succeed with the 'six' if the judges and prosecutors at the Tribunal decide to ruin the reputation of this international court and destroy their own professional dignity. Perhaps to satisfy Čović and his attempts to revive Herceg-Bosna with that sacrifice?

Božo Ljubić, recently a member of the Parliament, has also joined Čović's latest agitations for Herceg-Bosna: "Herceg-Bosna was never abandoned nor extinguished," said Ljubić. August is the month in which the horrific HVO concentration camps in Herzegovina were extinguished and disbanded: dozens of Mostar camps, Dretelj, Heliodrom, Gabela, Žepče...