SDP Call: People of Mostar, Do Not Fall for Nationalist Provocations

The City Committee of SDP BiH Mostar strongly condemns the rampage of vandals in the Old Town, as the message being staged through this act is more than dangerous. It is difficult to convince citizens that the latest case of vandalism, as well as the drawing of a checkerboard on Planinica hill, is not part of a series of pre-election provocations, which should, presumably, convince us of the necessity of dividing the city and the impossibility of living together, announced by the SDP Mostar City Committee, as reported by the Patria news agency.

-As per the usual pattern, especially before the elections in Mostar, we can soon expect some new hooligan incident or conflict between the fan groups of "Brazil" and "Croatia" on the Boulevard, as we witnessed in the recent past. We cannot fail to notice the well-chosen timing of this ordered vandalism, which is Easter and the session of the Council of the Congress of Bosniak Intellectuals - Mostar branch, where the SDA presented its vision of a "united Mostar" - the entire old town in two parts.

Thus, the strength of arguments and democratic criticism over the past few years have been replaced by shocking statements, and expectedly, insults follow directed at those who dare to advocate for a united and normal Mostar, as well as for a united and normal state.

It is precisely because of such a distorted value system that those who have seen politics as the fastest path to positions of power, good salaries, cars, official phones, and suits have been in power for years. And that goal is most easily defended by nationalism and fear of others, and by constant preoccupation with the endangerment of one's own people, so that citizens do not deal with them and questions of how to survive.

Then the regime's executors start their machinery, in which important places are also occupied by the inspirers of such acts, working according to a matrix where it is important to point out every day the "impossibility" of living together.

We hereby call on and appeal to citizens not to fall for such provocations, of which there will certainly be more until the elections, the statement reads.