Meeting in Ivanica with Karamarko: Covic is making his way to the top of HZHB

The absence of political reactions, primarily of Bosniak leaders, to the opening of Office of Croat Member of Presidency BiH in Mostar which took place only with members of HDZBiH present and with church ceremony, as well as to talks with SNSD leader Milorad Dodik and to his presence at the signing of agreement between Elektroprivreda RS and HZBZ in Trebinje, seemed to have encouraged Dragan Covic to continue making his way to the highest position of 'governor of HZBZ or the third entity'.

On 3 May, together with his party delegation and officials, Covic met in Ivanica with President of HDZ Croatia and the first Vice President of Croatian Government Tomislav Karamarko and delegation of Government of Dubrovnik – Neretva Canton and city of Dubrovnik.

One of the topics was cross-border cooperation and development of Ivanica. Delegations agreed to act jointly so that territory of Ivanica could live to the full capacity; it was concluded that additional efforts should be made to have Ivanica grow stronger through opening of new jobs and infrastructure development.

Covic's delegation included only members of HDZBiH. There were no state or federal ministers, or federal Prime Minister, or President of Council of Ministers, when there are talks about Ivanica and cooperation with Croatia.

Covic is going about it subtly yet surely strengthening his position. The moves that he has been making lately were meant to 'take the pulse' of the public, and the meeting with Karamarko of two days ago has kick-started his plan.

As municipalities Ravno and Trebinje are just across the border one from another, one should not exclude Dodik from this story. From his meeting with Covic in Karadjordjevo in 2009, he became his 'political twin'. Hence his giving upon Ravno that was primarily populated by Serbs to Covic – now more and more Croats are buying land in Ravno.

Let's talk a bit more about Ivanica and explain why there were only HDZ BiH members in the BH delegation, as well as about related huge investments and profits.

The company Agrotour Ivanica is registered in Ravno. Its founders are Croat General Ivan Cermak and his son Hrvoje via company Voluntas registered in Mostar. In 2006, they bought from municipality Mostar 8 million and 700.000 m2 of land in Ivanica for only 1.20 KM per m2.

Today they sell that same land for 300 and more EUR per m2, so it is easy to work out what kind of robbery of state property we are talking about.

Neither municipality of Trebinje nor Ravno have ever made available land registry books so that real ownership could be established. Nevertheless their game, it is known that state property is in question. That's why the Attorney General at the time, Dragica Miletic stated that the sale will be looked into and the contract terminated but that has never been done.

Ivanica is situated at the border with Croatia. Its distance from center of Dubrovnik is only 7 kilometers. It is no wonder that Covic spoke with Karamarko about creating conditions for investments, and that Karamarko insisted that BiH for Croatia means priority transport, economic and security interest. But also in terms of profit, at least for the delegations that met in Ivanica.

European Commission withdrew 3 million EUR

The sale of land in Ivanica was the reason for European Commission to withdraw its funds of 3 million EUR seven years ago. The funds were originally allocated for construction of a modern border crossing to Dubrovnik. The Commission found out that the land is owned by a Croat general. This affair was on the agenda of BiH Parliament but those responsible have never been found.