Croat member of the Presidency of BiH Dragan Čović sent a letter to the high Representative Valentin Inzko and ambassadors of the countries and organizations members of the Steering Committee of the Peace Implementation Council.
“As Croat member of the Presidency of BiH, President of the Croatian National Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose primary obligations include care about legitimate interests and needs of Croats, one of three constituent nations in BiH, I address you, as authorized representatives of the countries that carry undoubtedly the largest part of international responsibility for the current situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the issue of constitutionally guaranteed equality of its constituent nations.
I address you in the moment when the systematic problems of this country, which have been piled and not solved for far too long, came to the fore in a dramatic way, for the umpteenth time, and jeopardized not only the political stability and future of BiH, but the stability of the entire region as well.
Because of systematic and occasional escalation of the mentioned problems, and because of the severity of consequences and risks they pose at this moment for Croats and BiH in general I feel the need to point to the character and genesis of those problems, especially to the responsibility of all actors who led to the creation of the problem, their maintenance and their aggravation.
As the most responsible political representative of the BiH Croats, the severity of the situation obliges me to clearly and loudly express political attitudes of the vast majority of my nation that I represent.
It is an indisputable fact that Croats, despite the full equality of all three nations in BiH guaranteed in the Constitution, over the past two decades have been systematically deprived of their legitimate rights guaranteed by Dayton and the Washington peace agreement.
I remind you that countries you represent guaranteed the implementation of those agreements which stopped the devastating war in BiH and which are the foundation of this country’s constitutional order and sovereignty.
Examples of deprivation of Croats of their elementary political rights, firmly grounded on constitutional category of the constituency of nations in relation to other two constituent nations, are numerous.
Here I will mention only the most dramatic ones:
-Illegitimate selection of the Croat member of the Presidency of BiH with the votes of Bosniaks in two terms, enabled with drastic violation of decrees of the existing Constitution and Election Law through political acts that strongly oppose the Constitution itself and the decrees on equality of the nations. Namely, Bosniaks can crucially influence the selection of the Croat member of the BiH Presidency. They can, in fact, entirely individually and with no vote from the Croat nation choose the Croat member of the Presidency of BiH, while Croats cannot significantly influence the selection of the Bosniak member of the Presidency of BiH in no way.
-The imposed amendments to the Constitution of FBiH which put the equal presence of Croats in the bodies of executive authority in the Federation and their ability to equally decide in those bodies in direct dependence on the will of political actors who represent interests of the Bosniaks. If Croats even manage to have their legitimate representatives in the Government of FBiH, as the case is right now, the existing rules and balance of power in the Government of that BiH entity puts them in an inferior position because the FBiH Government can reach all decisions without their votes while, on the other side, no decision of Croat representatives can be adopted without the approval of Bosniak ministers in the FBiH Government.
-Violations of the mentioned institutional changes in a way that directly harms the existential interests of Croats, from unfair distribution of revenues from indirect taxes, over physical planning and unfairness at the level of national radio television system, to the establishment of unconstitutional ministries in the Government of FBiH and generally the violation of cantonal jurisdictions in favor of the entity level of authority, at which Bosniak political representatives can sovereignly and independently decide and rule.
Since none of those mentioned anomalies were created by the will of legitimate representatives of Croats, but exactly on the contrary to their strong protests and many times reiterated energetic invitations to eliminate the listed abuses, I entirely reject any attribution of responsibility for the current crisis in FBiH and BiH to Croats. I undoubtedly consider this crisis a direct consequence of simultaneous and systematic implementation of separatist and unitary policies that do not threaten only the equality and constituency of Croats, but also the elementary stability and survival of BiH as a state.
With full responsibility I claim that the Croat policy in BiH does not have elements of separatism and Unitarianism in it, but it firmly and consistently advocates for a combination of consociational and federalist principles of order as the only principles that can ensure the sustainability of BiH and full constituency and equality at its entire territory, not only for the members of the three constituent nations, but also for all citizens of BiH who do not consider themselves members of any of the three constituent nations.
Equality can be achieved in many ways and through many different models. One of them is internal territorial reorganization of the FBiH, another one is consistent federalization of the entire BiH through the establishment of three or more federal units in which all three nations would be constituent, but in which one of the constituent nations would be a majority in a symmetric way.
Croat issue can be solved without territorial reorganization, too. it is enough to give them back the rights guaranteed by the Washington agreement, i.e. the original Constitution of FBiH, through constitutional amendments and amendments to the Election Law. Thereby, the reforms that were positive and did not compromise the constituency should not be questioned.
Nowadays, Croats have no chance to influence the termination of political processes that are ruinous for the existence of BiH (separatist policies and unitary-assimilation policies), and they do not even get to equally decide on their political fate. In present conditions, the path that BiH takes simply does not depend on Croats. The victims are Croats and their country BiH, which they respect, love and build as a constituent nation.
I wholeheartedly greet you, hoping that you will consider the seriousness of the existing situation in BiH, its entire background and risks it brings, as well as that you will acknowledge the importance of the aforementioned principles and institutional mechanisms for permanent stabilization of situation in BiH so that this country could finally give its full contribution to the regional and European stability”, it was stated in the letter by the Croat member of the Presidency of BiH Dragan Čović addressed to the High Representative Valentin Inzko and ambassadors of countries and organizations members of the Peace Implementation Council in BiH.
(Source: klix.ba)
