Nikšić to Čović: The problem isn't a civic state as the EU wants, but the racist state you seek

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The President of SDP BiH, Nermin Nikšić, sent an open letter to the President of HDZ BiH, Dragan Čović, after Čović said in Zagreb yesterday that a civic state also means an Islamic state.

“I respect those who want a civic state. However, saying 'civic state' in Bosnia and Herzegovina today means classic unitarism, in some theoretical form, it essentially means an Islamic state,” Čović told reporters during his visit to Zagreb yesterday.

We are publishing the open letter from the President of SDP BiH, Nermin Nikšić, in its entirety:

“With your statement that advocating for a civic state in today's Bosnia and Herzegovina is equivalent to advocating for an Islamic state, you have truly crossed the line.

Unfortunately, with such statements, you confirm that you have not moved on from 1993, when, as the director of Sokol, you brought prisoners of war from concentration camps for forced labor.

At that time, the worst crimes were justified in an identical way to how the racist model of the election law, which your HDZ advocates for and which, unfortunately, the current government of the Republic of Croatia also advocates, is now trying to justify, undermining the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina almost daily.

Back then, you were allegedly defending yourselves from mujahedin, and today, you are allegedly defending yourselves from ISIL.

Therefore, Mr. Čović, the problem is not with the civic state that the vast majority of people in BiH want, and whose establishment the European Court of Human Rights mandates, but the problem is with the racist state that you, your followers, and patrons want.

I am immensely saddened that in the 21st century, and precisely in Bosnia and Herzegovina, there are politicians like you who still live in the past, not the recent past, but in the time of the crusades.

The statement equating a civic BiH with an Islamic state is inappropriate and offensive to those citizens of BiH who advocate for a state where all people are equal in every part of it.

It is also offensive to Croats, behind whom, as well as behind other peoples, nationalists hide their greed and crime.

This statement is not only unacceptable but also completely contrary to the European values that you claim to be a great promoter of. I invite you to name at least one contemporary European democratic country that is not civic. I invite you to name just one such country where all its citizens do not have all rights guaranteed, regardless of their identity, but where rights are guaranteed based on their name. You will not find such an example, because the realization of rights based on identity is called racism, not democracy.

Surely, as a former communist, you do not need to be explained that a civic state and unitarism have nothing to do with each other. The former is a matter of basic democratic principle, and the latter is a matter of state administrative organization. A state can be civic and highly decentralized, and vice versa.

For example, the cantons where HDZ has held sovereign power for three decades are the most unitarist administrative units, not only in BiH but also in Europe. This has nothing to do with the civic system, but with the policy of HDZ, which grants itself all rights and seeks them, while not giving or allowing them to others.

The stubborn refusal of HDZ to recognize the right of Bosniaks to call their language Bosnian in the constitutions of these cantons, while denying Serbs the right to be even positioned as a constituent people in the constitutions!? You even discriminate against the Croats there, as is the case with the violation of fundamental rights of educators and police in West Herzegovina. For years, they have been protesting bitterly due to discrimination not by Sarajevo's unitarists or ISIL, but by the absolute HDZ rule, which denies them the right to health insurance, maternity benefits, pension and disability care, etc.

Therefore, the biggest unitarists in BiH today are precisely your HDZ and you, who pursue such a policy where you have full power. That is where the true face of such a policy is revealed.

It is a shame that you have not read the new European Union Strategy for the Western Balkans, which, among other things, states that accession to the EU is a matter of choice, not obligation, and that those who want to join the EU should not view this path solely as a technical issue, but also as a decision to accept European values.

One of the fundamental values of modern Europe is precisely the equality of all citizens, regardless of their ethnic or religious affiliation, and place of residence.

A Croat from Sarajevo cannot have fewer rights than a Croat from Mostar, nor can a Bosniak from Tuzla have more rights than a Bosniak from Livno, nor can a Serb from FBiH have fewer or no rights compared to a Serb from RS. This is what you are seeking and what cannot pass, no matter what wrapping you try to put on such racist policies. This policy has been judged by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which characterized it as racism.

BiH will be a state of all its people, equal everywhere and on every basis, and only a civic state guarantees that this can happen.

From your statement, it can be clearly concluded that you, with or without the rest of the ruling coalition, have renounced the path to the EU, or that you have only shown that you have never supported this path, which is probably much closer to the truth.

Racism is not a European value, and its promoters have no place in Europe. Therefore, I call on all of us to focus on solving the everyday problems of citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina, instead of pursuing condemned nationalist policies. Only in this way will we show that we care about the progress of all citizens and peoples.”