Glorifying 'Herceg-Bosna' and Vile Lies: Is Čović Proud of the JCE, the Ahmići Massacre and the Destruction of the Old Bridge in Mostar?

Written by: Delvin Kovač

Let us be proud of every day of the functioning of the Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna, of all the good that sprang from it, because where there was no organised action by it, the Croatian people were displaced, and all their testimonies destroyed and burned.

We had the opportunity to hear these fascist fabrications yesterday from the leader of HDZ BiH, Dragan Čović, whose words I will immediately correct and reformulate: where there was no organised action of the so-called Herceg-Bosna, the Bosniak people were not displaced, tortured and killed, and all their testimonies were not destroyed and burned.

From Čović's words, the uninformed might assume that the so-called Herceg-Bosna indeed achieved much good. But what good can come from something that has been convicted of a joint criminal enterprise (JCE), something in whose name innocent Bosniak blood was shed and in whose name Muslims were burned alive only because of their name and religion?

There are many questions, however, to which Čović has left us without an answer, and these are just some of them:

- Is he proud of the destruction of the Herzegovinian jewel built in the sixteenth century - the Old Bridge in Mostar, carried out from the surrounding hills by the Croatian Defence Council (HVO)?

- Is he proud of the massacre in Ahmići of 116 Bosniak civilians, also carried out by the HVO?

- Is he proud of the massacre in Stupni Do near Vareš, where the HVO killed 38 Bosniak civilians, 11 of whom were burned alive?

- Is he proud of the 111 years of prison sentences handed down to the Hague Six for the JCE?

- Is he proud of the words of war criminal and Hague convict Dario Kordić, that he would repeat everything for which he was convicted?

- Is he proud of the dozens of concentration camps where HVO soldiers mercilessly psychologically and physically abused and killed Bosniak civilians?

- Is he proud that in 1993, as general director of the Mostar company "Soko", he brought Bosniak prisoners from the notorious HVO camp Heliodrom to forced labour?

- Is he proud that his "cathedral city" of Mostar is still quite full of ruins, thanks to HVO projectiles?

- Is he proud of the cultural and urbanicide in which, under the direction of the HVO, thousands of houses, buildings, mosques, cemeteries, monuments and numerous other structures were damaged, demolished, and burned?

- Does he regret that Franjo Tuđman's plan for the criminal creation of the so-called Herceg-Bosna to be annexed to the Republic of Croatia failed?

The fascist statement by the leader of HDZ BiH somehow unexpectedly flew under the radar of the Bosnian public. Yesterday, the news of the verdict of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on the appeal of Slaven Kovačević came to the forefront. And there, perhaps, politicians from that pro-Bosnian/pro-Bosniak/patriotic spectrum thought they could get away with their lack of reaction to the nonsensical claims that the self-proclaimed European proudly uttered yesterday in Mostar and Grude.

Just as most political parties did not react to the recent serious threats made against Bosnia and Herzegovina by Russian Ambassador Igor Kalabukhov due to the stay of members of the BiH Presidency Željko Komšić and Denis Bećirović in Kyiv, most remained silent on Čović's boasting about the para-state creation. And from those who silently ignored Dodik's cursing of genocide and glorification of war criminals, we could not have expected anything significantly different in their handling of the Čović case. Because the Troika firmly embraces positions that, precisely without Čović and Dodik, they would never have had.

We remember that Čović instructed his subordinates - the President of the Federation of BiH, Lidija Bradara, and the Federal Minister, Sanja Vlaisavljević, to float the thesis of rehabilitating war criminals after serving their prison sentences, trying to test the pulse of the public in the Federation of BiH. But both faced strong public opposition, though not exactly from their Troika partners, who are absolutely indifferent to whatever nonsense their partners Čović and Dodik plan to "fire off" on a daily basis. It never crossed the minds of the Troika to initiate the dismissal of Bradara and Vlaisavljević. And there were requests for this to be cut short by Bonn Powers to the Office of the High Representative (OHR), but Christian Schmidt also remained deaf. Čović's Bradara and Vlaisavljević, like the Troika, still sit firmly in their comfortable chairs.

We have somehow become accustomed to the Troika's servility towards partners from HDZ BiH and SNSD since October last year, but the lack of reaction from the international factor, which so ardently advocates for the Euro-Atlantic path and democratic values of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is somewhat concerning. However, if we consider that the United States and the European Union see both the destroyer of everything Bosnian, Milorad Dodik, and the Herceg-Bosna-oriented Dragan Čović as serious partners in talks on very serious issues concerning the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina, then any surprise at the lack of reaction from the "Westerners" no longer makes any sense.

We recently had the opportunity to witness a video of the HVO destroying the Old Bridge in Mostar in 1993. Finally, one more question for Čović - did he perhaps watch it with popcorn and beer?