Letters from a Sarajevo Theology Student to Čović Delighted Milan, a Serb from Mostar

Forgive me, my dear Josip, knowing that this support of mine is just another burdensome “cannonball” in the complete load of your truths and good and conscientious thoughts, because it comes from a Serb, spoken from one person to another, but be sure that your conscience is clean and pure, and that you, like some of our other great and honest Croats, such as Predrag Matvejević, Roko and Dragan Markovina, the late Josip Jole Musa, the eminent sculptor Florijan Mićković, and other Croats known and respected by us Mostaris, also knew and were able to highlight and cleanse all negativities in their own yard and in their own Croatian flock, even at the cost of persecution or volleys fired into their own lives – it states in the letter from Milan Jovičić, a Serb from Mostar, who is delighted by the efforts of theology student Josip Šimić from Sarajevo.

Šimić is writing open letters to the Chairman of the Presidency of BiH and the leader of HDZ BiH, Dragan Čović, which the media are reporting on, and in which this young man warns Čović that his policies are leading not only Bosnia and Herzegovina but also the Croatian people in the country into an abyss, and that despite all the indictments and crimes in which a good portion of them are involved, they still believe him.

The Patria News Agency is transmitting parts of Jovičić's letter, which he sent to Šimić as a sign of support:

Dear Mr. Josip Šimić,

Forgive me, please, for not using formal address, given that you are much younger than me, although you truly deserve respect not only from me but from all free-thinking citizens of this beautiful, proud, and defiant Bosnia and Herzegovina of ours.

Your letters to Dragan Čović have truly delighted and inspired me, or rather, compelled me to express my respect and sincerity, along with your faithfulness to the calling you have chosen and great human courage, which is lacking not only in many of our younger forces but also in mature, sober academics and our highly educated intellectuals and citizens.

I choose to be human, to forgive, to forget the bad, to remember a kind gesture, to admit when I am wrong and to say the hardest word - I apologize!

It doesn't matter, it's better this way, and it's a wonderful feeling when you lie down in bed at night and easily fall asleep because a clear conscience is priceless.

I choose my words carefully, because how will all these specters of the past and present understand and interpret this, that a Serb from the city of Mostar is addressing you, informed by his direct knowledge and experiences caused by his own personal Golgotha, by idiots and such inappropriate Christian forces, pseudo-worshippers or "communists" from the front rows of Ratko Perić's liturgies in Mostar or Cardinal Vinko Puljić's in the cathedral of my hometown Sarajevo, in this time and era, all under the conducting baton of their "pure-blooded Croat," even if it is Dragan Čović or many of his associates.

I experienced an unprecedented ordeal from them and barely saved my head in 1996, after the first post-Dayton elections for the City Council of Mostar, because as a "weak believer" from the former socialist system, I had not sufficiently learned that even the word Mostar, a unified city, was a "blasphemous" and unacceptable term in their Christian house of worship, and that because of it, one could lose their head.

Forgive me, please, my Josip, for all these thefts, tricks, and criminal acts, especially since you have highlighted them so precisely and clearly, as if you were reading all that alienated material from many indictments against Dragan Čović. We Mostaris and Herzegovinians, as well as all the birds on our Herzegovinian branches in their daily chirping, are so familiar with even more numerous accusations, but unfortunately, in our unjust system and surrogate state in which we live, all of this is superfluous and unheard, hidden and secret, but true and very well-argued.

You said it well, "Veritas amara est / truth is bitter," but for whom and how much does it hurt these spineless and degenerate members of their own kind, least of all "pure-blooded Croats" or such preachers of the Church among Croats, who support them and allow these pagans to welcome and kiss the hand of their holy father Francis, to sell "a pig in a poke" to my Sarajevans and Bosnians in the capital city and throughout my Bosnia.

We have been robbed and impoverished in the city of Mostar, in our company "Soko," on our numerous plots of land of our once favorite promenade, the so-called "Mostar Baram," where today, even with numerous police forces and guards, one can no longer peacefully walk or even look at the "hard-earned" haciendas of Dragan Čović and the fugitive tycoon Jelavić and their other fighters for their beautiful homeland of Herceg-Bosna.

Forgive me, please, my Josip, as our wise old men would say, that you are brave in your factual and truthful accounts, but based on my experience as a Mostar Sarajevan, keep in mind that caution is also a virtue of such brave people, especially when they find themselves in this area and domain of Herzegovinian Croats, particularly loyal to the image and misdeeds of "their pure-blooded leader among Croats," the self-proclaimed academic from Mostar.

Forgive me, my dear Josip, continue to be proud and brave in your understanding of humanity and what is God-given and created, after all, you are directly studying it and know it very well, so that no hypocrisy or lying can shake you, no matter from whom it comes.

Cordial greetings,

With respect from Mostar,

Mr. Milan Jovičić, B.Sc. Elec. Eng.