Denis Bećirović's Response to Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović

Denis Bećirović, candidate for the BiH Presidency, today responded to the latest statement by Croatian President Kolinda Grabar – Kitarović, in which she once again unauthoritatively interfered in the internal affairs of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bećirović's response reads:

Dear President Grabar-Kitarović,

Regarding your latest statement in which you once again unauthoritatively interfere in the internal affairs of the independent and sovereign state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, I hereby invite you once again to, in a democratic spirit and in a dialogue based on facts, not general and inaccurate claims, jointly contribute to the improvement of the relations between our two countries, as neighbours sharing the longest border.

I will remind you once again that I specifically asked you and the authorities of the Republic of Croatia to:

-        stop uninvitedly playing the role of emancipators of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina;

-        stop spreading a false image of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina;

-        stop demonizing Bosniaks, the only nation in Europe that has suffered another genocide after World War II;

-        stop verbally supporting, and in essence and in practice undermining, the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina;

-        stop promoting the segregation of people and advocating for an electoral system in which ethnic affiliation or any identity acquired by birth should guarantee holding political office, because that is racism, not democracy;

-        stop protecting and promoting an ideology that has been condemned by the International Court of Human Rights for a joint criminal enterprise, as well as a practice that has been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights as severe discrimination;

If Bosnia and Herzegovina is characterized as a 'non-democratic society' by calling on neighbours to stop glorifying ideas and projects that have been characterized as a joint criminal enterprise by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and to stop promoting political practices that have been named by the European Court of Human Rights in as many as four judgments as a severe form of segregation, discrimination, essentially apartheid, then I must conclude that your definition of a democratic society is extremely problematic.

In my previous open letter, I drew your attention to the fact that numerous international institutions and organizations are publicly calling out the Republic of Croatia for the revival of neo-fascist ideologies. I listed the report of the US State Department and the positions of a number of other institutes, which also dominate the analyses of the situation in Croatia by all major world media (BBC, CNN, Associated Press, AFP, Der Spiegel, Der Standard, The Guardian).

Given that the Republic of Croatia is already marked in the European and world public as a country led by the radical right that relativizes war crimes and disregards fundamental European values, and the postulates of equality and equal status of states in international relations, I believe that it would be in your best interest to cease your malevolent policy towards Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

Madam President,

At the end of your response, you said: “I will not tire of advocating for the equal rights of all three peoples, even if I am accused of interfering in the internal affairs of BiH.”

Why do you think the rights of any of my fellow citizens and compatriots are more important to you than to me? In fact, your stated position unfortunately confirms the continuation of an unfair attitude towards Bosnia and Herzegovina. I ask you not to do this, because our experiences from the nineties, when Tuđman's Croatia tried to 'educate' the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina on how to organize their state, still serve as a warning. Those wounds are still open, and the only way to help them heal is to abandon Tuđman's ideology and, in accordance with the responsibility of the Republic of Croatia, take your share of the obligation to remove the devastating consequences that the implementation of the joint criminal enterprise has left on our country and all its citizens.

Tuđman's Greater Croatian idea caused permanent damage to Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, just as all similar ideas in the past were devastating for them. After such "projects" and attempts at their realization, the result was devastating: both due to the loss of human lives for that insane idea, and due to the tragic migrations after the failure of those ideas. The verdicts of international courts dealt the final blow to such an ideology, permanently marking it as a shameful criminal enterprise.

I invite you again for all of us, in the interest of our citizens, to choose dialogue, understanding, and mutual respect. Such a commitment from the Republic of Croatia would truly please me. Therefore, I invite you once again to be a factor of cooperation and rapprochement, and not a herald of old ideologies that have brought only misfortune to the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a tarnished reputation and international stigma to the Republic of Croatia.