'Marićs' who relativize the growing evil in BiH are more dangerous than SNSD and HDZ

By: Ernad Metaj

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SNSD and HDZ, Mostar and Banja Luka, these days are again firmly connected by the ideology of evil that manifests itself in different ways. HDZ and SNSD, under the guise of settling scores with communists whose prominent members were once their leaders, spread hatred and intolerance towards all peoples who are a minority in a given territory.

Moreover, the love between Milorad Dodik and Dragan Čović is merely an act of their own interest from which Serbs in Mostar, nor Croats in the RS, derive any benefit. Dodik and Čović are friends, but Serbs and Croats cannot be. Their common enemy are Bosniaks, whose political representatives, such as the President of the Mostar City Council Salem Marić from SDA, continue to relativize fascism, hoping to somehow maintain some semblance of coalition relations.

It is known who and why often desecrates the Partisan Cemetery in Mostar. This is the work of young fascists, street hooligans pre-emptively amnestied by the authorities who politically control the Ministry of Interior of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton. These are new generations of „Ustashas“ imbued with hatred by part of the politics and society that have their accomplices among some Bosniak political representatives. These are children whose heads „politicians hold on the block.“ This was vividly demonstrated during the attack by members of the Ultrasi fan group on Mostar's Mahala, from where the attackers barely escaped with their lives.

The hatred produced by politics in Mostar has already led to ethnic conflicts, but the political representatives of SDA forget this because of their share in power, so they continue to relativize fascism. For Marić, the new swastikas used to desecrate the Partisan Cemetery are not the real picture of Mostar. In the city on the Neretva, only in the eyes of politicians in power do love and tolerance flourish, just as has been shown these days in Janja, Srebrenica, Prijedor, Banja Luka...

Shots near mosques, the Chetnik choreography during Christmas intended to frighten returnees, the president of SNSD Milorad Dodik sees merely as an act of individuals that should be prosecuted. He is contradicted by the justified suspicion of representatives of the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina from Prijedor that the provocations were organized because the provocations of Bosniaks and the glorification of war criminals that occurred in front of the city mosque were accompanied by police escort of Serbian extremists.

That the relativization of evil is just a political mantra was also proven by the parade of RS police units, which presumably should protect all citizens of the RS.

-    For the cross, for the cross of Nemanjić, for glory, for glory of Obilić! - sang the special forces who should protect all citizens of the RS.

With a song that says „There are more Serbs than leaves, there are no more communists“, the RS Ministry of Interior agreed to be publicly colored by Chetnik ideology, thereby institutionally sending a message to other peoples that the RS was not created to be their home. 

Fascism in BiH raised its head long ago, and this, whether Marić agrees or not, is the picture of Mostar, Banja Luka, and all cities in BiH where provocations and incidents no longer occur sporadically. Marić, as an exponent of SDA policy, which for years successfully divided people in Mostar with HDZ and only successfully deprived citizens of public assets by transferring them into the hands of party tycoons, should finally admit his own mistakes and stop relativizing the evil that dangerously threatens to lead to wider conflicts. Unlike Marić and those like him, whose politics have long been fed by interethnic incidents, many returnees have not slept peacefully for a long time. Marić's task, and the task of all politicians who genuinely care about peace and coexistence in BiH, should be to resolutely oppose policies that base their survival and campaigns on the actions of extremists on the ground.

Everything we are living through in BiH today reminds me of Ahmed Burić's Facebook status after the announcement of the 2018 election results. Desperate, Burić wrote: „The EU doesn't want us, we don't know how to do it ourselves. Happy four more years of this. Whoever is last, let them leave the key at the Embassy of the United States of America.”

From this perspective, Burić's prophetic ability has been shown, and he could be even more desperate this year if electronic voting and counting of ballots are not ensured in the next elections. If the policies that have divided us and kept us in the dark for 25 years are not punished, then there is no need to leave the key anywhere because we will have nothing to unlock.