Mostar already considers it theirs: Čović, with Zagreb's help, defends the criminal HZHB in Stolac

By: Edina LATIF

Bosnia and Herzegovina, which judging by everything that has happened and is happening to us in these two post-war decades, is a "no man's land and everyone's land".

Anyone who comes and goes can do whatever they want, say whatever they want, and behave as if this is their own private property.

Both Belgrade and Zagreb take turns interfering in this poor and suffering Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Both the eastern and western neighbors say they will not interfere in the internal affairs of our country.

THEY SAY!

But when it comes to concrete matters, there are no more messages.

THEN THEY ACT!

The arrival of Božo Petrov and Miro Kovač in Stolac, at a time when the fate of not only Herzegovina but also the survival of the internal integrity of our one and only homeland is being decided in local elections in this Herzegovinian town, is by no means an insignificant political move.

It is an extremely dangerous visit.

Why now? As far as memory serves (and Google can be checked), high-ranking officials from neighboring Croatia have not been in such a hurry to visit the town on the Bregava River in these 21 post-war years.  

Their main destination has always been Mostar. They regularly provided support for "equality of Croats" in this city, which Čović likes to call the "Croatian capital city". From there, they sent messages that they came to support Croats, but that they would not interfere in the internal affairs of BiH.

Petrov and Kovač, just like all other Croatian officials who have mostly passed through Mostar, did not end up in Stolac for support.

They came to indirectly pressure Bosniaks with the message that either they should remain silent and accept the policy of Croatian domination, or there is no place for them, to pressure official state institutions and bodies before the repeated local elections, and to demonstrate that Mostar is a settled issue for them, and that Stolac is next.

When and where were Croats discriminated against for many years, and were only constituent on paper, as Petrov stated. It doesn't seem to be the case in practice.

What right does Dragan Čović, who in 1993, as director of Sokol, exploited the Bosniaks of Stolac, among others, as laborers in the camps, have to say that he will always perceive Stolac as Croatian territory? Does the leader of HDZ BiH have any remorse when he comes to Stolac or any other Herzegovinian town whose Bosniak residents he exploited as camp inmates?

Čović has suffered amnesia and forgotten that he was an accomplice in the joint criminal enterprise of HZHB.

It was planned by the joint criminal enterprise for which Prlić and his team are awaiting a final verdict in The Hague, that Stolac would be ethnically cleansed.

However, the desire and courage of Bosniaks to return to their homes, to show in the local elections on October 2, 2016, that after 26 years they will bring normal life back to this city, that Stolac will be a Bosnian-Herzegovinian, not an exclusively Croatian space, disrupted Čović's plans to finalize and seal the criminal HZHB.

That is why the incident in Stolac on election day was staged. That is why Petrov and Kovač arrived seven days later, to show on the spot that the policy of Pantovčak, from Tuđman's to Kolinda's days, has not changed by a millimeter.

Let's say we don't follow political events in detail. But, incidentally, we will ask ourselves how it is that in the past two decades no official from Croatia has come to Stolac to see how the Bosniaks, who were killed and expelled from their homes in 1993, have been discriminated against?

Wouldn't it be in the interest of maintaining and building good neighborly relations for Zagreb to finally, not just declaratively, but also practically, renounce Tuđman's expansionist policy, and to acknowledge by their visit that crimes were committed against Bosniaks in the town on the Bregava River?

Petrov and Kovač did not come to Stolac on their own initiative; Čović invited them because they are friends.

It is enough to glance at the positions they hold to make it clear that this is the official policy of Zagreb, and that regardless of who is in power in "European Croatia", the pretensions to a part of our country have never ceased.

 

And how do Kovač and Petrov, or official Zagreb, intend to protect Croats in Stolac without interfering in the internal affairs of BiH?

Dragan Čović has been given everything that represents the economic-material basis and all resources in the territory of the so-called Herceg Bosna.

Now, what we have on the scene, with the wholehearted support of official Zagreb, are pure political demands aimed at administratively and institutionally completing HZHB.

Just when everything was finished for Mostar, Stolac stood in the way like a "bone in the throat". Kovač and Petrov came to remove it.