Media controlled by the radical HDZ are conducting an orchestrated campaign against the Association of Victims and Witnesses of Genocide: The truth bothers them!

By: Rasim Belko

Anonymous and slightly less anonymous Herzegovinian portals controlled by tycoon Dragan Čović have in recent weeks been attacking the Association of Victims and Witnesses of Genocide with artillery of heavy accusations composed of spins and twisted theses.

These accusations started on the portal bpz, continued on hms, and today from the portal abc they called on “competent institutions to ban the work of this radical Association and thus prevent possible negative connotations of their controversial activities”.

And controversial activities, in the opinion of anonymous authors on anonymous portals, are the civilizational demands of those who survived genocide, camps, and various tortures, that criminals be shown their place. Because, unlike Čović's political partners in the Trojka and the lame opposition, the Association of Victims and Witnesses of Genocide, along with the Association “Movement of Mothers of the Enclaves of Srebrenica and Žepa”, are the only ones who insisted on the dismissal of Sanja Vlaisavljević, who tried to introduce the thesis of rehabilitating war criminals into the public space, all after her party colleague and President of FBiH Lidija Bradara also tried to rehabilitate war criminal Dario Kordić, stating that he is her friend.

It is no wonder that HDZ likes war criminals, considering that the party president himself was a camp administrator and was never held accountable for it.

It is obvious that the rehabilitation of war criminals is another point in the strategy by which HDZ is preparing for the next election cycles, so they were bothered that anyone, let alone some associations, dared to criticize Vlaisavljević and Bradara, to demand dismissals, and the like.

To clarify, no one from HDZ, nor their journalists, has the right to accuse anyone of radicalism, given the fact that they do not even allow Heliodrom camp inmates to mark the anniversary of the tortures they endured under Dragan Čović’s lock.

But likewise, no one has or can give HDZ and their journalists the right to call the fight for civilizational values radicalism. Because HDZ emerged from Croatian radicalism that wanted to divide Bosnia and Herzegovina, committing crimes at every opportunity when Bosniak civilians found themselves in the open.

They have no right to object to anyone, because the leadership of HDZ has welcomed convicted war criminals and celebrated freedom with them. Therefore, radicalism has long resided in parts of Herzegovina controlled by Dragan Čović and his entourage.

Imagine if someone in Poland banned Jewish associations or called them radical when they clearly exposed those who glorify or, God forbid, try to rehabilitate fascists. This cannot be imagined, because only in Bosnia and Herzegovina do followers of fascist policies and their deeds have the space to call themselves leaders of the European path. And as such, to imagine that they have the right to lecture everyone on civilization and radicalism.

Well, gentlemen, it won’t work. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia convicted the Croatian leadership for a joint criminal enterprise (JCE) and no text can wash that away. HVO destroyed the Old Bridge, razed Ahmići to the ground…

And you want to talk about radicalism, while still boasting about it and rehabilitating perpetrators.

The habitually busy Sarajevo, preoccupied with internal squabbles, has not even noticed that HDZ is labeling associations that have contributed more than anyone else to justice in The Hague being somewhat satisfied as radical. And the two listed associations certainly more than others.

Therefore, the question is, do the Association of Victims and Witnesses of Genocide and the “Movement of Mothers of the Enclaves of Srebrenica and Žepa” bother them only because they demand the dismissal of glorifiers of criminals, or perhaps because for years they have been visited by Santana, Brammertz, other Hague prosecutors, foreign journalists, investigators, and the like at commemorations of massacres across BiH.

The truth is a bitter pill for those with the burden of crimes that HDZ carries. And that is clear to everyone. The fact that they are bothered by associations that seek truth, justice, and the values of the normal world is actually the best proof that these associations are doing a good job, primarily for the victims, and then for the country.

And whoever does such work will be called radical by HDZ and their media orchestra.

Perhaps Sarajevo will one day wake up and shake them off as they deserve!