The 30th anniversary of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) was marked in Mostar. The main and most beloved guest was Croatian President Zoran Milanovic, whom Deutsche Welle (DW) interlocutors say is behaving like a “bull in a china shop.”
”President of all Croats”
”I will not talk about history, I will pay attention to my every word because I know that there is a weighing scale around me and I know that every word of mine will be measured as friendly or hostile, with an emphasis on the latter. I come here as a friend to a friendly country, and not only as a friend but also as a brother,” said Milanovic, Avaz writes.
Speaking about the relationship between Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Croatia, and the election of political representatives, he said that ”there must be order,” and he had a message to SDA President Bakir Izetbegovic and he commented on the statements about the HVO as a “criminal organization”.
”If the HVO is an illegal criminal organization, why don’t Alija’s heirs return the highest order that President Tudjman awarded to Alija Izetbegovic,” Milanovic asked, accompanied by applause.
”His words are like a match”
The Mostar Association of Detainees was the first to react to Milanovic’s words. The president of this association, Emir Hajdarevic, stated that he spent 309 days in prison as a 21-year-old.
”I was in the camp because I am a Bosniak, a member of the Army of BiH, but I did not even have a rifle. I spent the whole conflict between the Croats and Bosniaks in the camp. The Hague tribunal sentenced the leaders of such a policy of disbanding the state to 111 years in prison. That is why I also resent Zoran Milanovic, who seems to be the successor to that policy. He flatters the policy that was against him in the last elections, for their votes. I don’t know if he’s aware of how incendiary what he’s saying here is. Milanovic should come to his senses, his words are like a match,” said this former member of a camp.
”Champion of the right-wing policy, advocate of the militarization of society”
During the presidential campaign in November 2019, Zoran Milanovic, who was nominated for that function by SDP-led left-wing parties, said: “I will not go for votes in BiH.”
Milanovic was elected president, and his opponent Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic received as much as 91.3 percent of the 35.547 voters who voted from BiH, he only got 2.701 or 7.5 percent.
”Zoran Milanovic decided to reject the liberal cloak of the representative of decent civil Croatia, which obviously hindered him, but also brought him victory in the last elections. He is now the leader of the right-wing policy, an advocate of the militarization of society and discourse that is far from the normalcy he advertised in the campaign. The only thing that remained the same was the glorification of Franjo Tudjman,”considers prof. Dr. Dragan Markovina, historian, publicist, and columnist from Split.
”As for his attitude towards BiH, Milanovic is behaving like abull in a china shop and there is no doubt that his decisions and statements are motivated politically and by the idea that he is on the mission of a great statesman. That’s the problem, but still less than the fact that he likes to keep quiet about some things. Because, when we talk about the HVO and its role, we cannot mention only the role from 1992 and 1995, and skip 1993 and 1994. He does this systematically and thus undermines any effort to build relations between Croats and Bosniaks in the Federation of BiH (FBiH) without tension,” Markovina concluded.
E.Dz.
