The summons from the Prosecutor's Office and SIPA to Suljagić, Bajrović, and me is a clear message to Bosniaks: Shut up and do not resist!

(Patria) - SDA President Bakir Izetbegović publicly commented on today's hearing at SIPA ordered by the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country where genocide is denied with impunity, even cursed, where inhuman and uncivilized bizarre jokes are told about genocide in television shows, war criminals are glorified, imams and returnees are verbally and physically attacked, entire peoples are insulted, especially Bosniaks. Milorad Dodik leads in all of the above, who a few days ago denied genocide particularly insolently and provocatively, in Srebrenica itself.

The Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina is deaf, mute, and blind to statements that deny genocide, insult victims and peoples. Neither Dodik nor other genocide deniers have ever been summoned for questioning. They did not do so even when Slaven Raguž, president of the Croatian Republican Party, glorified war criminal Slobodan Praljak and advocated for the renewal of the so-called 'Herceg-Bosna'.

But, based on a report by the same Raguž, the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued an order to SIPA to summon me, the director of the Srebrenica Memorial Center Emir Suljagić, and political analyst Reuf Bajrović. We are reported for 'inciting national, religious, and racial intolerance'.

The summons to the president of the political party that enjoys the greatest support among Bosniaks and the director of the Srebrenica Memorial Center is sent on the day when the United Nations General Assembly adopts the Resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica. Not at all coincidental. It is a clear message, both in timing and in the selection of people being summoned. And the message is sent to all Bosniaks and all BH patriots: to be silent, not to resist, to be aware of who has control over the Prosecutor's Office and SIPA and who currently manages the processes.

Of course, I have never uttered a single word that could hurt a member of any people or incite inter-ethnic hatred and intolerance. That is simply not in my being, nor has it ever been the policy of the SDA. What I have said, and what I will always repeat, is a call for strengthening the defense capacities of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Also, I will call on Bosniaks to be cautious, who in the last century were subjected to massacres, ethnic cleansing, and genocide in wars, and in peacetime to discrimination and denial of basic rights.

The statements about military strengthening and 'counting' that the Prosecutor's Office suddenly, two years after they were made, considers problematic, were given at a time when a threatening, secessionist policy was heating up, accompanied by the same rhetoric from the RS entity, but also from Serbia.

That was the time when Chetniks sang 'how the bloody Drina will flow again', when Milorad Dodik threatened the violent takeover of barracks of the Armed Forces of BiH on the territory of the RS entity 'as in 1992', when Serbian minister Vulin, otherwise a spokesman for the current Serbian regime, stated that 'the Balkans will be stable only when Serbs again live in one state', when messages about intensive arming were sent daily from neighboring countries, when attacks on Bosniak returnees in the RS entity were intensified...

That is, therefore, the time when a psychosis was created among the inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina that new conflicts and new suffering threaten them. At that time I said, and I will say today - we must do everything in our power to prevent the repetition of the scenario from the 90s of the last century, as well as to prevent any new conflict. Weakness attracts bullies, while strength deters them.

Therefore, for the preservation of peace and stability, it is necessary to strengthen institutions and all segments of defense, from the Armed Forces and police structures, to every patriotically minded individual. Of course, all within the framework of the Constitution and laws of Bosnia and Herzegovina. So, do everything that responsible states and enlightened peoples do," Izetbegović stated.