Mesić: BiH has always been one entity

Former Croatian President Stipe Mesić was a guest on Centralni dnevnik with Senad Hadžifejzović on FACE TV.

Speaking about BiH, Mesić said that BiH's place is in the European Union, but that the authorities must first resolve certain problems within the country. And, when resolving these problems, Mesić said, the authorities in BiH must know that the borders of BiH cannot be violated.

- Europe's architecture is complete – Mesić emphasized.

- BiH has not yet sufficiently resolved its problems. BiH has two entities that are not historical facts. These are not historical entities. BiH has always been one entity, from the Bosnian kings, the Turkish rule, the Austrian rule, Yugoslavia.... So, always one entity. But, the war, the crimes, the ethnic cleansing, and the external factors that influenced the stopping of the war, have largely confirmed the gains made during the war. Bosnia has not been returned to its natural state. It needs to get there now. Dayton stopped the war, which is commendable, but BiH is not sufficiently equipped to be compatible with EU countries – Mesić said.

- A certain breadth is required here. The breadth of the people leading BiH. There must not be that nationalist narrow-mindedness. Those who lead BiH should have that goal – Mesić added.

The former Croatian president believes that the international community expects too much from local leaders in BiH. If they could have reached an agreement, they would have done so by now, he says.

The creators of Dayton, he says, were convinced that peace needed to be established, and that the state of peace would lead to a reasonable democratic solution, but it turned out that things in BiH have become entrenched. This must now change.

Commenting on the efforts of Dragan Čović and HDZ BiH to establish another, Croatian entity in BiH, Mesić said that the establishment of a Croatian, third entity in BiH would only lead BiH Croats into a ghetto. And, he says, that is not in the Croatian national interest, writes NAP.