ZAGREB, May 15, 2018 – Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović opened on Tuesday a Croatian consulate in Vitez, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), which will provide consular services to nearly 100,000 people living in 12 municipalities in central BiH.
“I hope this will be Croatia’s anchor in central Bosnia,” she said, adding that this event had been expected and advocated for a long time as it represented concrete assistance to numerous Croats as well as all others living in that part of BiH.
She said the problems of the people in central BiH were similar to those in similar parts of Croatia – depopulation, young people leaving, and difficulties in the return of those displaced in the 1990s war. “I hope we will remedy that in cooperation with the BiH authorities,” she said, reiterating that the future of Bosnian Croats was to stay in BiH and that Croatia would continue to support Bosnian Croats and BiH on its European Union journey.
“We firmly believe that our future is in the EU,” she said, telling Croats in central BiH, “Croatia will be there for you until then, not just through this consulate but everything else that Croatian officials do.”
The President of BiH’s Federation entity Marinko Čavara said the opening of the consulate was the realisation of a promise made long ago “thanks to statesmen in Croatia who understand the situation in BiH and central Bosnia.”
He thanked Grabar-Kitarović, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and the Croat member of the BiH Presidency Dragan Ćović, who was also in attendance. Čavara said the consulate would represent support to locals. “The people in BiH need support on the European journey.”
Croatia plans to open a consulate in Livno too, as nearly 90,000 persons with Croatian citizenship gravitate to that area.
