In the name of the lions who gave us freedom, raise the Bosnian flags and light candles for the murdered dreams of Greater Serbianism!

Written by: Rasim Belko

Tomorrow is March 1, one of the most important dates in the long history of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On that day, our state restored its independence. Everything has been said about the historical significance and the political struggle that preceded the independence referendum.

However, one aspect is often pushed aside, somewhere to the margins of speeches and congratulations. And that aspect was the most important prerequisite for the referendum to happen and for the independence of the Bosnian state to be restored.

That prerequisite is reflected in the readiness of the brave sons and daughters of Bosnia and Herzegovina to risk everything they had, the most sacred things—life, family, freedom—and prepare the ground for the restoration of independence. Many will say that the referendum was a product of the breakup of Yugoslavia and Greater Serbian aspirations, but that is only partially true.

Because had it not been for the readiness and determination of patriots, political leaders, and other lions and visionaries—and this readiness is emphasized by the circumstances in which everything took place—who knows what kind of state we would be living in today.

It was a serious task: to decide and organize a referendum, to withstand all the pressures of Serbian politics and operatives who wanted in every possible way either to prevent the referendum or to discredit its results enough so that they would not be accepted. However, besides that burden, every individual who led the battle for an independent Bosnia and Herzegovina in those months lived with the possibility, which later materialized, of open aggression by those whose dreams of a Greater Serbia were spoiled by BiH's independence.

Therefore, it must be continuously repeated that the referendum did not happen by chance, that the right to choose between freedom in one's own state and captivity in someone else's was not given to us by anyone, but that our compatriots fought for that opportunity in that time, I repeat, risking everything they had.

And they were aware that the referendum was only a decision on the independence of our state, and that its defense would follow. That is why these compatriots, Bosnian lions and lionesses, must be brought to the forefront when talking about independence, because while many were dreaming the dream of Yugoslavism, they were on the ground creating opportunities for the defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bosnianhood.

The people of Bosnia and Herzegovina were bare-handed, and the state was institutionally under-capacitated to defend its independence, because the then still formally existing SFR Yugoslavia did everything to weaken the capabilities of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

And that is why we must be clear that we did not survive because of the help of NATO, the UN, the West, or anyone else, but because of those brave ones who clandestinely forged plans and also found resources for the defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is therefore sad when I read today's "experts" analyzing the role of the first president Alija Izetbegović and the patriots around him in the defense of the state.

President Izetbegović and all the patriots of that time started from nothing and built a state; those who criticize them today cannot clear 40 centimeters of snow in complete freedom. They cannot protect state television, they institutionally undermine the state, and they talk about a time about which they obviously know little or do not want to know.

And the patriots from the early 1990s not only secured independence, created the Army and the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, protected a good part of the territory where the displaced took refuge, but they gradually developed offensive strength and enabled General Mehmed Alagić and his fighters to climb to the top of Vlašić, and General Atif Dudaković to break out of the enclave and come within reach of Banja Luka. None of that happened overnight or without a serious sacrifice from every individual.

Because of them, today we have our own, independent Bosnia and Herzegovina. Because of them, we must be aware that each of us must be ready at every moment to give our all, just as they did in the early 1990s. They also had their "troikas" then, just as we have them today!

We must not believe today that the state cannot be lost; it can, and we are not far from that. Because we who live in Bosnia and Herzegovina today too easily believe foreign representatives, no matter where they come from, and we forget that most of them got their states through signatures, while we gave our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters for ours…

And in the name of our lions and lionesses, let us raise the Bosnian flags tomorrow, show Bosnian defiance, let everyone know that the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina is eternal, and its enemies are transient. Because we truly have something to be proud of.

By the way, since the regime of Milorad Dodik has declared March 1 a Day of Mourning in the RS entity, and they have something to mourn because their victims were in vain, the patriots of Bosnia and Herzegovina light candles for the dead dreams of Greater Serbian hegemonism!

Happy Independence Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina!