Forgotten British Documentary from 1994: How Tuđman Was Creating 'Greater Croatia' on BiH Territory

(Patria) - A British documentary film (Channel 4) titled "A Greater Croatia", released in January 1994 as part of the Dispatches series, testifies to Croatia's aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the process of forming the para-state of HZ Herceg-Bosna, which aimed to destroy Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The film is an important testimony, especially in light of the fact that today's Croatian politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina, led by HDZ, attempts to relativize wartime events, as well as its own role in them, writes Istraga.ba.

The burden of a dark past, in which the initiators of the project of creating a Croatian para-state and committing war crimes as a means were practically all from the ranks of HDZ BiH, is being attempted to be discarded for the sake of today's goals, more modest, but no less harmful to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The documentary depicts the process in which Croatian President Franjo Tuđman, Croatian Minister of Defense Gojko Šušak, as well as the leaders of the para-state HZ HB Mate Boban and Jadranko Prlić conceived and attempted to implement the plan to form a Croatian para-state on the territory of the Republic of BiH.

The significance of the documentary lies in the fact that the protagonists of that plan, Tuđman, Boban, Šušak, and Prlić, are direct interviewees of the film's authors.

In addition to those listed, former advisors to Croatian President Franjo Tuđman - Slaven Letica and Dušan Bilandžić, as well as the former president of HDZ BiH and member of the Presidency of BiH Stjepan Kljujić, were also interviewed.

Given the moment of its release, before the Hague Tribunal had effectively established the existence of a joint criminal enterprise aimed at ethnically cleansing the area within the imagined borders of the Herceg-Bosna para-state, practically while it was still being implemented, it has the value of a historical source.

At the beginning, the authors take the municipality of Čapljina as an example and the persecution experienced by Bosniaks in that city, whose property was systematically destroyed afterwards.

"Herceg-Bosna did not arise by chance. The creation of this state is the realization of a long-term plan. The story of how the Serbs took their part of Bosnia is well known. The Croats did the same, but their game plan has been neglected.

Herceg-Bosna owes its existence to one man - Croatian President Franjo Tuđman. The idea of a Croatian state on Bosnian land was his personal obsession.

Tuđman built this state on concentration camps, ethnic cleansing, torture, and starvation carried out by his follower Mate Boban," the documentary states.

In the documentary, Tuđman claims that Bosnia and Herzegovina was created by the "Ottoman invasion" of Europe.

- Until that time, a larger part of Bosnia was part of the Croatian state, or it was some Bosnian kingdom, but Catholic, connected with Croatia," Tuđman asserted.

Bilandžić and Letica state that the goal of the meeting between Slobodan Milošević and Franjo Tuđman in Karađorđevo, i.e., the Serbian and Croatian delegations, was to discuss the fate of RBiH, but without the inclusion of Bosniaks.

Continuing, Mate Boban, then president of HZHB, "explains" that Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state has ceased to exist, and that this is the reason for the formation of HVO as a new executive civil-military authority.

In this regard, the authors state that they have obtained documents showing how the HVO consciously weakened the position of the Government of RBiH in the defense of Sarajevo from Serbian paramilitary forces.

"Dispatches has come into possession of an official document showing the restrictions imposed by the HVO on the Bosnian army. In many areas under supposed joint control, the HVO plunders industrial facilities, power supply, and transport vehicles.

All shipments for the Bosnian army are restricted. Thus, in Grude, a shipment of 37 trucks with weapons intended for the defense of Sarajevo was stopped," the authors state.

It is further emphasized that the European Union did not want to impose sanctions on the Republic of Croatia.

It is explained that the Wens-Owen plan, one of many that envisioned the ethnic division of BiH, motivated the HVO to launch an attack on the Army of RBiH in Mostar and throughout BiH.

When asked by a journalist about night footage showing the expulsion of Bosniaks from the western part of Mostar, he briefly replied: "That footage could have been taken in Somalia too."

When the British journalist stated that there was evidence of Croatian Army (HV) tanks in BiH, he cynically replied: "We also have evidence that your tanks are somewhere there near Pakistan and India."

Boban concludes that the goal of Croats in BiH is to join Croatia.