Reprise of War Incitement

“The Main Council of the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia organized a round table on July 17, 1998, in Neum titled: The Future of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This gathering was attended by representatives of all relevant Croatian political parties, associations, institutions, and organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The aim of the consultation was to attempt to project future relations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and, from a scientific standpoint, try to direct the activities of all political, social, educational, cultural, and scientific institutions toward issues significant for the survival of Croats and their gradual reintegration into the entire Bosnian-Herzegovinian society and state,” it was said about the gathering held two decades ago.  

In 1998, in Neum, it was stated “that there are tendencies in play that permanently threaten the implementation of the Washington and Dayton Agreements. Serbs will constantly strive to unite their para-state of Republika Srpska with Serbia, while Bosniaks - Muslims will endeavor to turn the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the embryo of their future state, into their own state. Croats will remain caught between the desire to annex their areas to the Republic of Croatia… Moreover, these agreements will be threatened by the tendency (both spontaneous and programmed) of permanent ethnic cleansing of certain areas.”

Thus, the demand for Croats to integrate into the entire Bosnian society and state has, to this day, been reduced by the HDZ to a third entity comprising several municipalities in western Herzegovina. Just as was announced under the HDZ's auspices. At that gathering, Jadranko Prlić, the main convict for the joint criminal enterprise, also spoke. Even some lawyers of those convicted for the JCE were present.

After that round table 20 years ago, last year, on March 16 and 17, a new Neum event was organized, labeled as a scientific conference: “Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bearers of European Values.”

The main guest, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, then said:  

“BiH is facing new challenges, especially due to the rise of extremist groups and the migrant crisis. Along with the strengthening of separatist aspirations in Republika Srpska, the position of Croats in the RS is poor. Croatia strongly supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of BiH. We are ready to help BiH in the fight against terrorism and illegal immigration. Croatia expects the urgent adoption of a new Election Law, the urgent adoption of a new Statute of the City of Mostar, and timely action by the international community,” she stated in Neum. Besides traditionally turning our country into a terrorist camp, Kitarović demanded changes to the system according to her wishes.

After the thesis was presented at the scientific conference: “Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bearers of European Values,” the Hague Tribunal issued a verdict for participation in a joint criminal enterprise. Everything that the HDZ of Croatia and the HDZ of BiH did from the end of the war was the destruction of human souls in Bosnia and Herzegovina, so that the Election Law, which implies a third entity and the realization of the final ethnic division in this country, could be more easily applied to these ruins. If the HDZ had, by any chance, built Bosnia and Herzegovina as a civic state, surely the Tribunal's verdict would not have been like this, nor would it have been pronounced as a joint criminal enterprise. Unfortunately, both in what it did during the war and how it acted in peace, the HDZ created a unique JCE.  

What could be heard these days in Zagreb from the President of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, and the Serbian leader, Aleksandar Vučić, was merely a continuation of Milošević's and Tuđman's policy of crime against Bosnia and Herzegovina. For the umpteenth time, recipes for this country were dictated by Belgrade and Zagreb. It can be said that the agreement from Neum is being implemented on the ground today.

In all this leadership rampage, the most base and primitive performances in BiH are also involved, such as the masquerade in Čapljina and the burning of a doll in Livno. In Čapljina, a performance of the funeral of Željko Komšić, a former member of the BiH Presidency and leader of the Democratic Front of BiH, a heretic and unsuitable Croat for the HDZ, was staged. In this primitive show, one could see a man disguised in a hodja's robe, Tito's pioneers, an armed man in an Ustasha uniform, etc.

The masquerade spoke more than the faces that remained hidden. At the same time, in Livno, a doll with the likeness of Judge Carmel Agius was burned, who, on behalf of the Trial Chamber, pronounced the verdict for Prlić and others. This was a cheap message that they do not recognize the Tribunal's verdicts. As if the verdicts of an international court can be accepted or rejected by free choice.

Croatia's policy toward BiH, unfortunately, does not change. The brutal propaganda heating up from the neighborhood reminds us of the times of Smiljko Šagolj's lies and his war incitement. No one even mentions the verdict of the International Court in The Hague anymore. /S.O./