The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina (PSBiH) Denis Zvizdić sent a request for urgent action to the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (OHR) regarding the challenge and disregard for the constitutional, institutional, cultural, religious and democratic rights of Bosniaks in Herzegovina.
In the request addressed to Christian Schmidt, Zvizdić, appreciating his understanding of the importance of the multi-ethnic and multicultural character of BiH as one of the fundamental values of the centuries-old continuity of BiH, pointed out that he is speaking in order to point out and warn about the unacceptable and intolerable level of challenging and disregarding the constitutional, institutional, cultural, religious and, ultimately, democratic rights of Bosniaks in Herzegovina, which you have been informed about by representatives of Bosniaks from political, religious and social life in Mostar, Stolac and Capljina.
“The last such information about the state of a kind of apartheid in which Bosniaks live in the mentioned cities, and the best example of which is the current situation in Mostar, was sent to you in the form of a public invitation by the mufti of Mostar, Salem ef. Dedović, who, extremely correctly, respecting the multi-ethnic character of Mostar, but also the imperative need to respect complete ethnic equality, proposed that an expert group be formed from the City, Canton, federal and state levels, which, under the supervision of the OHR, will urgently consider individually each case that is problematic in the public, in order to stop further devastation of the urban area of Mostar,” said Zvizdić.
He pointed out that the City of Mostar is not only an architectural jewel and sediment of the exceptional cultural, historical and spiritual achievements of numerous civilizations, but also a space where it will be shown and proven to a significant extent whether Bosnia and Herzegovina will remain trapped in the shackles of hegemonic ethno-national ideas or will respect democratic, multi-ethnic, anti-fascist and European values.
“The city of Mostar needs to be developed politically, urban and socially on the basis of equality, equality and solidarity, and not on the basis of one-sided ethnic exclusivity that goes to the detriment of Bosniaks, which is, unfortunately, a dominant and evident feature of the current institutional and urban-cultural situation in Mostar. Because how else to explain why, for more than twenty years, the construction of cultural objects, such as the “Mevlan” cultural center or the religious objects of the Islamic community, has not been allowed, but at the same time, the construction of cultural and religious objects of the Croatian people has been allowed outside of the institution and exclusivist “with wide closed eyes” with the questionable legality of spatial planning documentation,” said Zvizdić.
That is why, as he said, he is calling on Schmidt to form an expert commission that will individually consider each case of construction or prohibition of construction that is problematic in the public, and to make binding decisions with the aim of relaxing inter-ethnic relations and establishing procedures in accordance with valid laws and rules of the profession.
He also cited several facts about the situation in Stolac and Čapljina, as an additional example that shows the radical and aggressive trend of challenging the institutional and ethnic rights of Bosniaks.
“Namely, the entire public of Bosnia and Herzegovina has known for years that the ratio of employees in the city administration, administration and companies in Stolac does not reflect the statistics of the population census neither from 2013, nor from 1991, which is attributed by law. Out of more than 120 employees in the city administration in Stolac, only 6 are Bosniaks, while at the same time, not a single Bosniak is the director of a public company or institution, and a negligible number of Bosniaks are employed in them. The same, or even worse, situation is in Čapljina, where the rights of Bosniaks, as well as Serbs, are systematically violated. I believe that it is high time for your concrete action,” it is written in the request of the Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives of the PSBiH Denis Zvizdić sent to the OHR.
