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SARAJEVO, February 25 (FENA) - Four current and former officials of Bosnia and Herzegovina participated today at a panel discussion in Sarajevo where they pointed out to students the importance of state independence and the preservation of that value.
When asked: What is Bosnia and Herzegovina for you? BiH Presidency Chairman Željko Komšić replied that it's a homeland and a state.
“Only here I feel like home and where I can be myself. The state is something of infinite value, which we may not know how to appreciate,” he said, noting that for some other nations, their own state is still just an unfulfilled wish unlike citizens of BiH.
Another panelist, BiH Presidency member Šefik Džaferović, answers the above question by recalling the words of the first RBiH presidency chairman, Alija Izetbegović, that "Bosnia is not just piece of land in the Balkans, but an idea for many of us".
Džaferović points out that in 1992, going to the country's independence referendum, he felt he was going to be free.
"An independent, complete and internationally recognized state is freedom for me," he said.
Bosnia and Herzegovina still needs to fight because, unfortunately, it is not yet a 'country we voted for at the referendum', stated panelist Miro Lazović, former president of the RBiH Assembly.
For him, Bosnia and Herzegovina is 'the most beautiful country in the world, independent, but not yet with the desired status of a referendum country'.
A fourth panelist, former BiH Presidency member Ivo Komšić, recalled the pre-referendum historical facts that on January 25, 1992, the RBiH Assembly decided to hold a referendum to ask whether BiH citizens want an independent, whole state as an equal community for all its population and the citizens voted for such BiH in a referendum.
Today's panel discussion, held at the Sarajevo City Hall entitled "BiH Independence: Past, Present and Future", was organized by the Student Parliament of the University of Sarajevo on the occasion of March 1, Bosnia and Herzegovina's Independence Day.
In addition to current and former BiH officials and a large number of students, many other guests from the academic community, mayors of Sarajevo municipalities, the media, and other participants attended the panel.
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