News in English     | 07.02.2018. 16:35 |

Nikšić: It is offensive to compare BiH as a civic state to an Islamic state

FENA Press release

SARAJEVO, February 7 (FENA) - President of the Social Democratic Party of BiH Nermin Nikšić, sent an open letter to the President of the Croat Democratic Union of BiH Dragan Čović in which he asserted that Čović, with his statement that advocating for a civic state of Bosnia and Herzegovina is just the same as advocating for an Islamic state, has truly gone too far this time.

Nikšić claims that, unfortunately, such statements confirm that he did not took a slightest step forward from what he was in 1993, "when you, as the manager of the Sokol company in Mostar, brought in prisoners from nearby concertation camps for forced labor.”

“At that time, you justified the worst atrocities and crimes in the same way you are today trying to justify your racist model of the election advocated by HDZ, and which, unfortunately, is also advocated and supported by the government of the Republic of Croatia, thus attacking the BiH sovereignty almost on a daily basis. At that time, you say you allegedly defended yourselves from the mujahedins, and today, you are allegedly defending yourself from ISIL,” wrote Nikšić in an open letter to Čović.

He adds that the problem is not in the civic state which is preferred by the vast majority of people in BiH, and whose establishment is also required under the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, "but, the problem is in the racist state that you want and advocate for, together with your followers and funders.”

“The statement in which you equaled the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina to an Islamic state is distasteful and offensive to all those BiH citizens who advocate for a state in which all people will be equal in every part of the country. It is offensive to Croats, who, the same as in other nations, are used by nationalists for their own greed and criminal activities,” stressed Nikšić in the letter.

Nikšić emphasized that this statement is not only unacceptable, it is completely contrary to the European values ​​"for which you claim to be their big proponent".

He asked Čović to name a single contemporary European democratic state that is not a civic state. He asked him to name at least one such state in which all its citizens do not have guaranteed all rights, regardless of their identity, but instead, that their rights are guaranteed by what their names are or by their ethnicity.

“You will find no such example because fulfillment of one’s rights based on person’s identity is called racism, and not democracy,” emphasized Nikšić.

He states that "the cantons in which HDZ has held sovereign power for three decades now are the most centralized, unitarist, administrative units, not only in BiH, but also in Europe." He added that this has nothing to do with the civic state system, "but rather the politics of HDZ that recognizes and seeks all the rights for itself, but it does not give or allow any of those rights to others.”

 “All of the above is easily proven by the stubborn refusal of HDZ to recognize the Bosniak people the right to call their language as they wish, the Bosnian language, in the constitutions of the said cantons, by rejecting the Serb people to even have the right to the status of constitutive people in the constitutions of those cantons!? You even discriminate against Croats there, as is the case with the violation of fundamental rights of education workers and police officers in western Herzegovina.

They have been protesting for years because of the discrimination that neither the Sarajevo “unitarists” nor the ISIL have committed against them, but an absolutist HDZ government, which denies them the right to health insurance, maternity benefits, pension and disability care, etc.”

Therefore, the biggest unitarist in BiH today is in fact HDZ and all of you, who implement such policies wherever you hold absolute power, "stressed Nikšić in an open letter to HDZ president Dragan Čović.

“It is a pity that you have not read the new EU Strategy for the Western Balkans, where, among other things, it is said that the EU accession is a matter of choice, and not an obligation, and that those who want to join the EU must not consider this path as solely a technical matter, but also as a decision on accepting European values,” said Nikšić to Čović.

He emphasized that one of the fundamental values ​​of modern Europe is the equality of all citizens, regardless of their ethnic or religious affiliation, or place of residence.

Nikšić states that a Croat in Sarajevo cannot enjoy fewer rights than a Croat in Mostar, the same as a Bosniak in Tuzla cannot enjoy more rights than a Bosniak in Livno, and of course a Serb from FBiH cannot have fewer rights than a Serbs from RS.

“What you are asking for cannot and will never be accepted, and no matter what way you wrap it up, it is still a racist policy. This policy was condemned before the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg and has been characterized as racism,” said Nikšić.

Nikšić further states that BiH "will be a state of all its peoples, who are equal everywhere and on every basis, and only a civic state can guarantee this will happen".

“I have unambiguously concluded from your statement that you, with or without the rest of the ruling coalition, have renounced the accession to the EU or that you have finally revealed that you never supported BiH’s accession to the EU to begin with, which is probably much closer to the truth. Racism is not a European value, and its proponents have nothing to seek for in Europe. Therefore, I urge you to renounce the nationalist policies and instead to focus on the resolution of everyday problems of all citizens and peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” concluded the SDP President Nermin Nikšić in an open letter to President of HDZ BiH Dragan Čović.

(FENA) S. R.

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