ZAGREB, May 11, 2018 – The parliamentary committee for Croats abroad on Thursday held a meeting on the status of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina and that country’s European journey, with the committee’s chairman Božo Ljubić saying that Croatia has to take a more active stance toward Bosnia and Herzegovina, underscoring the importance of amending the election law in Bosnia and Herzegovina before October’s elections.
Ljubić recalled a 2016 Bosnian Constitutional Court ruling according to which the Bosnian election law was discriminatory towards the constituent peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina and ordered the country’s parliament to amend the election law, setting a deadline of six months to do so.
The joint conclusion by the participants in today’s meeting was that the status of Croats as a constituent people in Bosnia was threatened by gradual changes to the Dayton Agreement and that it is necessary to amend the election law before the general election called for October 8 so that Croats in that country can have equal representation in representative bodies just like the Serbs and Bosniaks.
Ljubić underscored that “Bosnia and Herzegovina is Croatia’s strongest strategic interest.”
Chairman of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee Miro Kovač said that Croatia “wants to live in harmony and peace” with its neighbour Bosnia and Herzegovina and that it was normal for Croatia’s parliament to talk about Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He also recalled that according to its Constitution, Croatia is obliged to guarantee the security of the Croatian people abroad. “With the Washington Agreement, we undertook the obligation to protect Bosnia and Herzegovina’s independence but also to promote the obligations that are related to the implementation of Bosnia’s constitution. When Croatia talks about amendments to Bosnia’s election law, that can’t be referred to as interfering in internal matters, but as implementing Croatia’s obligation under the Washington Agreement,” Kovač explained.
“For Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, factual equality and the European path are two sides of the same medal. If Bosnia wishes to join the European Union, it has to respect the rule of law and that is something that Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Croatia insist upon,” Kovač said.
He recalled German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s statement in which she underscored the urgency to amend Bosnia’s election law. Kovač added that during the 1990s war, “Croats and later Croatia rescued Bosnia and Herzegovina and that is something to be proud of.”
Croatian MP and director of the Croatian Homeland War Documentary Centre in Mostar Željko Raguž reported that the State Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina filed issued and upheld 299 indictments for war crimes and crimes against humanity: 261 against Serbs, 35 against Croats and 3 against Bosniaks who were members of HOS and HVO Croatian military units, whereas not one member of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been indicted for crimes against humanity.
With that, the Bosnian State Court seems to suggest that Croat and Serb political organisations were criminal, while the crimes committed by the Bosnian Army were just incidents, Raguž said, adding that all this has gone on “without any reaction from Croatian political or scientific structures.”
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Deputy Foreign Minister Josip Brkić believes that is the reason why the election law has to be changed immediately as that would contribute to democratisation and stability in the country. He expects the country to join the EU as soon as possible and that by the end of the year Brussels will issue positive recommendations in that regard.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković’s envoy and state secretary in the foreign ministry Zdravka Bušić said that “we are concerned about how the election in October will be implemented because it could lead Bosnia to an even deeper crisis.” She added that Croatia cannot and must not passively watch the unequal status of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
President of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Federation entity Marinko Čavara said that the only solution for the country is to join the EU and NATO and that there was no alternative to that.
Deputy Croatian Parliament Speaker Miljan Brkić (HDZ) believes that there are those who only claim that they are for Bosnia’s Euro-Atlantic journey, noting that “Croats remain the forerunners in that wish, but the question is how much do the other two peoples advocate that. It is one thing to declare that yet it is another to take concrete steps in that direction,” he claimed.
MP Domagoj Hajduković (SDP) too underscored that Croatia is concerned for its compatriots in Bosnia, that it is in Croatia’s interest for Bosnia to function and for Croats in that country to exercise their rights, and that Croatia has to work on securing those rights.
Ljubić added that he has prepared for ratification a Croatian parliamentary resolution on Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s European journey.
