The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Elmedin Konaković, has strongly condemned the holding of a panel in Zagreb at which BiH was referred to as a “failed state”, announcing that Bosnia and Herzegovina will send an official note to the Government of the Republic of Croatia on this occasion.
Konaković made a statement on social media regarding the scandalous gathering at which radical theses were presented about the internal organization and future of BiH, saying that the institutions will not remain silent about attempts to “draw new maps”.
“Tomorrow we will send a note to the Croatian government. We will react institutionally and seek a statement from the Croatian authorities on this scandalous gathering that took place in Zagreb”, Konaković said on Sunday.
The head of BiH diplomacy drew a parallel between such statements and ideologies from the past that led to war conflicts and crimes in the 1990s.
“These radicals in Zagreb have not learned a lesson from the 111-year-old verdict against Prlić and others (the verdict of the Hague Tribunal) who started fascist rampages in Bosnia and Herzegovina by drawing maps. This policy resulted in murders, arson, displacement of people and crimes in Ahmići, Stupni Do and other places. Of course, such things worry us. We do not underestimate them, but we do not overestimate them either,” emphasized Minister Konaković.
“We are strengthening the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina that will respond to this and other challenges, especially on the international level. There we will once again show our friends and allies what ideas and what kind of people still live in and around Bosnia and Herzegovina,” concluded Konaković.
A panel on Bosnia and Herzegovina held on Saturday as part of the TradFest festival in Zagreb caused sharp reactions, after some participants expressed their views on the need to establish a third, Croatian, entity and assessed Bosnia and Herzegovina as a “failed state”, while critics warned about the political background of such messages.
