Sabor's Declaration: A reprise of war aims against BiH

By: Sead Omeragic

The debate about Declaration by Sabor of Croatia about the position of Croats in BiH has turned into river of most incredible lies about 'endangerment'.

Miro Kovac, the former chief of Franjo Tudjman's office was the loudest one: 'Declaration about the status of Croats in BiH does not interfere with the internal relations and will not jeopardize relations between Croatia and BiH'. Therefore, not only that they interfere with the internal affairs of BiH, they also know how BiH will react to that.

'The way the colleagues from BiH will deal with the issue is up to the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, however, it is Croatia's duty to bring to their attention that it is absolutely unacceptable and rude for Bosniaks to elect the Croat representative at the BiH Presidency', said Kovac.

This is how HDZ Croatia repeats its approach to BiH. The International court in The Hague has convicted Prlic et al, as well as Franjo Tudjman for a joint criminal enterprise on the basis of clear and revealing transcripts that the first Croatian president duly recorded and left behind. There are some horrid statements in those transcripts, such as the one by Mile Akmadzic: 'President... up towards Stolac from Buna, Blagaj, further up, to eliminate them completely (Bosniaks), at least to Capljina'.

And they did eliminate Bosniaks and pushed them north of Capljina. Let's remember the concentration camps and horrific images of people from west Herzegovina detained, which left the European and world public heartbroken. Many authors wrote about Tudjman's hatred for BiH. The peace broker Richard Holbrooke wrote about it in his memoirs To end the war. This is what Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte had to say about Tudjman:

Franjo Tudjman could not stand a mere thought of Bosnia and Herzegovina existing as an independent and sovereign state... Division of Bosnia was a consequence of territory theft in which both Serbs and Croats took part, wrote Del Ponte in her memoirs.

A reprise of war goals continues a quarter-century later. It took place at the sabor session on 12 December 2018.

On the eve of the war of aggression on BiH, on 27 December 1991, Tudjman had spoken to the leader of HDZ BiH that sovereign Bosnia and Herzegovina 'mustn't be affirmed by Croats': 'One of our men in Bosnia has drawn up a proposal about demarcation (of peoples in BiH), where the Croat territories will be those that you have encompassed by Herzeg-Bosnia, which will be merged with Croatian sovereignty'.

'As an addition to those two communities (Herzegovina and Travnik communities), Croatia will also probably get (for political reasons) the areas of Cazin and Bihac, which will be a pleasing solution for the Croat national interest. The remainder of the territories where Muslims will remain (Bosniaks) and few Catholic Croats, in other word the territories around Sarajevo, a statelet could be established, a statelet as what is left of Bosnia. And that would be a buffer zone between demarcation lines of Serbia and Croatia, and this statelet would be leaning on Croatia', explained Tudjman.

This is how Tudjman openly admitted his plans to destroy and divide Bosnia and Herzegovina. That he was not interested in the Croats in Sarajevo. That he gave Bosanska Posavina to Milosevic even then, 4 months before the aggression started in 1992.

In his memoirs 'Balkan Odyssey', David Owen wrote about the letter he and Torwald Stoltenberg had received mid-1993, 'the letter in which Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic expressed fear about Croats trading Posavina for slightly more territory in Herzegovina'.

Only two speakers mentioned Bosanska Posavina at the recent session of Croatia's Sabor. One mentioned it in the context of tragedy of Croats, without going deeper into the causes and essence. The other one accused HDZ for selling out that beautiful part of BiH, for which he was expelled from Sabor.

Dusan Bilandzic, who considered Tudjman his best friend and who fought against persecution of Tudjman, revealed details of the Posavina trade: 'That was the biggest absurd. Milosevic and Tudjman organized military battles for Bosanska Posavina. I asked Franjo then: Why do you allow soldiers to die for Posavina when it has already been handed in to Serbia. Tudjman try to get away with an explanation that we should pretend it was won in the battle. One time, he even said that nobody should get an impression it was handed in without fight, revealed Bilandzic.

The transcripts and all Tudjman's gatherings were filled with identical secessionism as the recent session of Sabor. From that December gathering of Tudjman and HDZ on the eve of new 1992, the following words should be derived: 'The time has come to seize the opportunity and gather the Croat people within the widest possible borders'.

In January 1991, after a tennis game, Tudjman told Ian Traynor, a British journalist: 'The country, he laughed, will be reorganized along the lines that were last time attempted to be established in 1939 when Serbs and Croats agreed to turn Yugoslavia into a greater Serbia and a greater Croatia'. He referred to the idea which the Nazi and fascists presented to Serbs and Croats on the eve of signing a pact with those states in 1939.

What they achieved with the worst of crimes is identical to the goals they have today regarding BiH: European methods, while the debate at the Sabor seems a combination of Ostap Bender and Baron Munchausen. 

The Article 10 of the Constitution of Croatia says: 'The parts of Croat people in other countries are guaranteed particular care and protection by the Republic of Croatia'. The official (HDZ) Zagreb regularly uses that as the argument for meddling with internal affairs of BiH. A huge financial and any other support for Bosnian Croats is drawn from this article of the constitution, although they are constituents in their own BiH. Netherlands, as an example, has not incorporated in its constitution a care for their compatriots in Belgian Flandria. Bosnian Croats are the only people in the world who can elect and be elected in two states. Therefore, Republic of Croatia has made Bosnian Croats 'more equal' than their own citizens.  

The Constitution of BiH respects both the national and the civil. The interventions by Republic of Croatia presume that, as far as the BiH constitution and BiH election law, they want to see only 'national', without civil organizing, which is the road to absolute segregation within Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state.

When it comes to 'endangerment', one should check how may Croats are at high positions at all levels of government. Which permanent minister's positions have been booked for Croats (HDZ) for three decades after the war? What kind of endangerment are we talking about when no nation other than Croats, ever since Dayton, has held the position of finance minister at the federal level, as well as the justice minister?

One should analyze the actual national presence of all in order to obtain precise data. However, we could already now pronounce HR Inzko's statement accurate: Croats are not endangered as nation, quite the opposite. Most of the public companies in Sarajevo have been privatized and recapitalized by the Croatian public companies, without any from the Bosniak side ever saying a word against such illegitimacies. It has all been done for little or no money at all. The case of recapitalization of Energopetrol by Croatian INA (later Hungarian MOL) is outrageous. INA had received more money (by 1 ½ million KM) from the Federal government of Ahmet Hadzipasic, with the pretense of recapitalizing that Bosnian company. According to the reports of the Federal finance police report, it was the worst criminal case.   Undoubtedly, it is the high time to consolidate all this information, publish it, translate and send it to the European Union for it to see the kind of colonial relationship Republic of Croatia has established against Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has lasted for over 2.5 decades of peace.

The declaration of the Croatian sabor essentially does not differ from the Memorandum of SANU (Serbian Academy of Science and Arts), which brought about the worst of crimes. The Declaration and the Memorandum are based on 'threat to the nation'. The goal of these documents are the same from Milosevic over Tudjman to their political descendants of today.