DEBATES Bećirović lectures Čović: Stop spreading untruths about Sarajevo and the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina!

(Patria) - Denis Bećirović, delegate in the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, emphasized at the session that Bosnia and Herzegovina's entry into NATO is a set goal of BiH.

„In conclusion, I stress that this is a precise legal obligation of BiH and whoever obstructs it commits a criminal offense. Whoever wants to change it must change the law. Dragan Čović, Deputy Chair of the House of Peoples, stated in an appearance on HRT publicly before a wide audience: 'only Croatian representatives want NATO, Serbs follow Serbia and are not in favor of membership, and Bosniak representatives are not sincerely committed enough. First, I disagree with classifying political representatives into three camps. This is incorrect, and that is why it is good to check today, before the public, how much truth he spoke. 

I do not have time here to list how many untruths Čović told about the capital city, BiH, things that have nothing to do with facts, but to avoid any doubt and to check Čović's public claims, I propose the 'Consideration of the Report of the Council of Ministers of BiH on BiH's progress in the NATO accession process with a proposal of concrete measures to dynamize activities on BiH's path to NATO.

I repeat, this is a legal obligation, there is no debate about whether we will or will not join NATO, but we need to speed up the process.“, said Bećirović.

Dragan Čović replied to him and said that not only in this show but in hundreds of such shows over the last 20 years, he has said similar things about 'his homeland BiH.

„As for whether you are in some camp, you decide that here there are three Clubs. We are proudly in the Club of Croats because that is what the Constitution foresaw“, said Čović, adding:

„What I said about NATO I can argue in various ways, but that is for another discussion. Everything I said about Sarajevo as the capital of my homeland BiH absolutely stands, and all of us who should change something about those facts can only do one thing: truly change our approach so that I can also say that a Croat can be a representative of a public institution at some municipal, city, or cantonal level. Unfortunately, in the last 10 years, that has been erased. Sarajevo has become a city of one people, and the few Others“, said Čović, adding that BiH has its own national structure and will have it for a long time.

Bećirović then said that we must stick to the truth.

„I am only interested in the truth. You did not tell the truth on HRT, and that is the problem. You accused the authorities in Sarajevo of working on the Islamic declaration of a unitary state, etc. That is not true. Then you said that less than 1.5 percent of Croats live in Sarajevo. Look at the 2013 census, and you will see that you said at least four times less. You said that Sarajevo is an ethnically clean city, no, it is a cosmopolitan city, and as for the changed ethnic structure of the population, we know who worked on dividing the peoples. I call on you to speak about facts, not to put targets on the foreheads of entire peoples“, emphasized Bećirović, characterizing it as the lowest of the low.

Presiding Officer Nikola Špirić tried to interrupt him, saying that “something should be left for discussion” to which Bećirović replied, “Colleague Špirić, you are too young a player to confuse me.”

“If you reconcile us, Denis, there will never be peace”, commented Špirić.

Čović said that he stands behind every word he has publicly spoken in the last 15 years.

“You can put a mask over your ears, eyes, and mouth, and hear nothing and take no action, but with my years, experience, and knowledge, I believe I take good care of how I represent the interests of my homeland BiH, even when I speak as a representative of Croats in BiH”, said Čović.

Bećirović concluded the debate with a message that “the state of BiH will survive because the integrative forces in BiH are stronger and the friends of the state of BiH in the world are stronger than those who do not wish the state of BiH well”.

Denis Bećirović's initiative did not have either entity or general majority support.