Dragan Covic - Nation, that's me!

Does Covic has credibility for politics and to lead the Croat people? The man who used to sign in Cyrillic and consider himself a Yugoslav, became a nationalist leader overnight. Some media write that far reaching network of Croat UDBA men propelled him to the position.

Just like his patron Dodik who, from a pronounced Democrat transformed into a top-grade nationalist, Covic went through a personal, radical change from a Cyrillic Yugoslav to defender of the Croat national interests.   

The celebration of HZBZ he organized last November was a prelude to Dodik's 9 January, with 50 days in between. What would Dodik do without Covic? He would look like someone who did not know what he was doing or what he wanted. Most of his credibility, Dodik has built with generous help from Covic. Both of them have been demolishing Bosnia and Herzegovina at the expense of the third nation. Two without the soul, the third without the head (an old saying). He never mentioned the Croats in the RS, who had been exterminated.

He abandoned them by his persistent silence, compensating that with frequent attacks on Bosniaks and unconvincing story about 'endangerment'. He never even mentioned Serb crimes over the Croats. Over 140 Croats were killed in Praetor alone, and many ended up in the concentration camps. Covic never visited Brisevo, the Croat village which saw more than 70 of its inhabitants killed, girls and women brutally raped and few survivors thrown into concentration camps.

He celebrated Herzeg-Bosnia for the same reasons as Dodik – for sake of his remaining in power at the expense of creating tension and hatred among peoples in BiH. He endorsed referendum in the RS, and then 9 January and marking of unconstitutional the Day of RS.

Today, he keeps silent about Dodik's sanctions. He was publicly condemned from West Herzegovina for knowing well in advance about arrests of General Djuro Matuzovic and 9 other HVO soldiers in Orasje. He agreed that with Milorad Dodik, the Croats in Croatia and in BiH are convinced. They call his group of HDZ leaders 'the falcons' – because of privatization of the factory 'Soko' (falcon in English), but also because of taking positions of power by the speed of a falcon.

He is always surrounded with UDBA men under the army coat of Colak family. There are always some former JNA (Yugoslav National Army) officers around. Slavko Marin is a former JNA officer, known in central Bosnia as 'Salko Marin'. Until 1992, Salko – Slavko worked at then HQ of the Territorial Defense in Novi Travnik, and then he took the entire documentation to JNA military barracks in Travnik, where he remained until HV members arrested him in the first months of the war.  

Mijo Kresic, the deputy Defense Minister in the Council of Ministers BiH, also the head of the Department for Analysis and National Security in the Croatian National Assembly, is a former JNA and Army BiH officer. He even received the reward Fleur-de-lis (golden lily). Today, he is Covic's national pillar. Covic's son-in-law, Davorin Primorac, is director of Agency for Air Traffic services, along with his brother, Ivica Primorac.

His other son-in-law, Mario Krezic, works at Elektroprivreda HZHB, and his brother, Dario Krezic, is security advisor to Dragan Covic.

Witnesses say that, in selecting personnel, Covic and HDZ elite go as far as to threaten and blackmail: If Bosniaks do not agree to appoint their candidates (or better say she-candidates) because of conflict of interest, the Croats will boycott the Council of Ministers. Of course, that was in the eve of 9 January, when Dodik threatened with the same scenario.  

There are quite a few similarities in behaviors of Dodik and Covic. The villa in Bare, called 'hacienda' as a word of endearment, probably because it looks like a palace of the biggest drug dealers, radiates certain amount of power before the eyes of Hercegovina Croats. The neighbors are afraid of saying anything about 'hacienda' before the camera, which is reminiscent of the old fear of UDBA. The government with accreditation in form of mighty real estate from Mostar, across the seaside all the way to Zagreb, which look like Tito's villas on every few kilometers from Vardar to Triglav. The problem with some people is that they always end up showing that army coat they came from.

The most powerful BH politician, as Sarajevo media used to refer to him, started a new adventure as a coordinator of a new round of negotiations of the leaders 'about something for something'. At the end of that round is Milorad Dodik, although so far he has always been at the beginning. That is a serious tectonic and political change for Dragan Covic. The 'army coat' is power, but it means nothing without credibility.