Chauvinistic Attack Orchestrated by SDA on Hana Milak in the Livno City Council

(Patria) - The constitutive session of the Livno City Council, on February 2, 2021, was interrupted because the members of the Commission for Elections and Appointments, due to an unfounded suspicion by SDA councilor Sead Hadžijahić, decided to send an inquiry to the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina regarding my ethnic affiliation. The candidates were supposed to be Sead Hadžijahić and myself, however, under political pressure, the same Commission decided to officially request confirmation from the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"Although I submitted and provided for review my birth certificate, which clearly states that I am a Bosniak, the members of the same Commission from all parties, except for the President of the Commission who comes from the HRS, still requested that data on my ethnicity be provided. Thus, they did not take into account that this violates many of my rights, certain laws, and ultimately, I experienced this situation as a kind of coup d'état. Why? Because I am being deprived of the right to self-identification, which is defined by the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the official document of the City of Livno (my birth certificate) is not recognized as authoritative, and I was treated in a biased manner because of my political affiliation with the SDP BiH (also, this fact is a direct blow to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina).

The political options that requested the aforementioned declaration of ethnicity undermine my integrity in terms of women's rights by calling me a 'spy' and similar degrading derogatory names during their internal political meetings, because, obviously, in their world, women should not engage in politics. Also, SDA councilor Ibrahim Velić called me 'Ana', which is of course not my name. Who, in a democratic state, has the right to change my name?

Who has the right to violate the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, laws, declarations, and conventions? Those who want to destroy a state whose foundations are laws, the Constitution, democracy, etc., have that 'right'. All of the above is an obvious attack on the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an attack on women, and an attack on the democratic system. Today, I was prevented from declaring my ethnic affiliation. I experienced, with witnesses who heard and will testify, humiliation, degradation, chauvinism, selective nationalism, but also the energy of the Middle Ages that burned human rights fighters at the stake.

My motive and goal in my political engagement is exclusively the interest of the City of Livno and its residents. I do not have to be the President of the Livno City Council, but no one has the right to deny me the opportunity to run for office, nor to meddle with my personal data. Bosnia and Herzegovina is not North Korea. If some believe they can deprive me of the aforementioned rights, let them establish and organize a new dictatorial, totalitarian, absolutist Bosnia and Herzegovina, if they can. The data and information I have provided will, in the next few days, be available to all competent bodies of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the OHR, as well as to countries and states that are founders of democracy and the democratic system.

I dedicate this struggle to every woman, because a woman is also a human being," wrote Hana Milak.