Željana Zovko possible rapporteur for BiH instead of Dan Preda, celebrated war crimes days before

BRUSSELS, (Patria) - Croatian MEP Željana Zovko could replace Cristian Dan Preda as the European Parliament's rapporteur for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This was confirmed late on Wednesday to the Patria News Agency from several sources in Brussels.

HDZ MEP Željana Zovko found herself at the center of a scandal when she recently posted on the social network Facebook: “HRHB made a great contribution to the fight for the equality of the Croatian people in BiH while preserving the identity of all three constituent peoples, and during its existence significantly contributed to the defense of the sovereignty of the Republic of Croatia. We remember all those who, with their selfless sacrifice, helped in the founding of Herceg-Bosna“, Zovko wrote, among other things, which caused a wave of criticism in BiH and Croatia itself, accusing Zovko of celebrating a para-state whose leadership was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

 “That statement is absurd, considering the judgments of the Hague Tribunal. And while the EU demands that political representatives of BiH stop glorifying war criminals and their projects and take the necessary steps in confronting the past, we see that some European representatives do not adhere to this in their statements“, Rasim Ibrahimagić, coordinator of the Initiative for Monitoring European Integrations of BiH, recently told Deutsche Welle.

“Glorifying persons convicted of war crimes is contrary to European values and does not contribute to achieving lasting reconciliation in the country and the region“, was the stance of the Delegation of the European Union in BiH.

Croatian portal Index.hr journalist Gordan Duhaček was among the first to publish Zovko’s controversial posts in an article dated August 30, “HDZ MEP celebrates a criminal enterprise".
Duhaček questioned how the “legitimate HRHB“ made a great contribution to preserving the identity of all three constituent peoples in BiH “when Serbs were ethnically cleansed from it, while Bosniaks were held in camps“.

“Zovko actually announced that she celebrates a creation marked by ethnic cleansing, camps for non-Croats, and war crimes. These are the European values of HDZ under the leadership of Andrej Plenković, who again placed Željana Zovko on this party’s list for the European Parliament“, Duhaček assessed.