Neum Mayor Jurković: BiH is closest to us, and politics creates division between people

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Dragan Jurković, Mayor of Neum Municipality, in a conversation with BiH journalists who visited Neum last week, confirmed that the BiH flag is not displayed on the Municipality building.

According to him, he has a flag in his office that he did not find when he took office, and the flag that was once in front of the Neum Municipality building has disappeared.

Although he did not strictly promise to re-hoist the BiH flag in front of the Municipality, Jurković told journalists that people are the most important and that BiH is closest to them. Jurković was the HDZ BiH candidate for mayor in the local elections. 

“I am aware of the political turmoil that is happening, but I think ordinary people are not politicians. I entered this story from a different sphere, not classic politics, but I was on a political list and was elected mayor. Ordinary people should start taking care of themselves, we should respect everyone, and BiH is the closest, and I stand by that. Division is being created between people, which is not good,” said the mayor.

When asked by Patria journalists to clarify what happened at the veterans' association meeting a few days ago, after which it was interpreted that there was an initiative to ban the sale of real estate in Neum to non-Croats, Jurković dismissed such a possibility. 

“I attended that meeting where the election of the association's leadership was discussed. My desire is not to have 15 [associations] receiving money from the budget, but one largest one to represent them,” he said.

After the meeting, he saw reports in the media about real estate, but claims that while he was at the meeting, he did not hear such a proposal.

“I neither heard it nor did it reach me. Believe me, I would have rejected it if I had been there. I am not like that and I do not consider it good policy. It is a blow to me as mayor in some kind of struggle within the association itself to take sides. I have neither the mechanisms, nor as a human being do I see people as anything other than people,” said Jurković.