Posted on 09/06/2005 1:06:24 PM PDT by joan
Belgrade, 6 Sept. (AKI) - Bosnian Croats, dissatisfied with organisation of the state, demand a complete overhaul of the apparatus or their own entity, a Croat member of the collective state presidency, Ivo Miro Jovic, said on Tuesday. Croats make up around 17 per cent of and a Serb, told the Belgrade daily Politika that a decade after the Dayton accords that ended the civil war in Bosnia, the document should be revised to grant Croats equal rights with Muslims and Serbs.
Under the Dayton agreement, Bosnia was divided into two entities, the Muslim-CroatFederation and the Serb entity, Republika Srpska, with all state attributes, including parliament, government, army and police. Jovic said it was like putting three people in a room with two beds.
“In such a situation someone has to sleep on the floor, or share bed with the other person, and if that person is much bigger, then you can imagine what conditions for a good sleep you have”, said Jovic. That was, in his words, the position of Bosnian Croats, sharing power with majority Muslims.
He pointed out that for the past 15 years Croats couldn’t get the permission to build a new Catholic Church in the capital Sarajevo, while all mosques damaged in the war were reconstructed and scores of new ones were built. All local institutions, including television, were dominated by Muslims and streets were named after Muslim historical figures, leaving no room for Croats, he complained.
Jovic said Croats should have their own entity and self-rule, or the country should be organized on three government levels, with regional autonomy for each nationality, with loose ties on central level, which would comprise foreign and trade policy and monetary system. This would, according to Jovic, protect Croats and Serbs from Muslim domination.
The high representative of the international community, which safeguards peace in Bosnia, British diplomat Paddy Ashdown, has been gradually reducing powers of Republika Srpska and of the Muslim-Croat federation, and strengthening the central government structure. But Jovic, like Bosnian Serbs, said he opposed centralised government because it would give the upper hand to majority Muslims.
Jovic alleged that all of Bosnia was hostage to mujahadeen from Islamic countries, who remained in the country after the war, and wielded a strong Islamic influence on local people and institutions. “We are now all their hostages and hostages of a police which represents serious barriers on our joining European integration”, Jovic said.
Correct and well said.
If “Croat card” does not do the trick maybe this will help –some of the articles posted on this site!
Bosnia & Herzegovina Proposes as New Ambassador to the US Woman with Strong Links to Islamist Terrorism Defense & Foreign Affairs May 04, 2005
Attack on Italy within 6 months
Bosnian Muslim border officer suspected of killing Serb colleague
Jihadists Find Convenient Base in Bosnia
Weapons from muslim Bosnia to be used during the funereal of John Paul II
Saudi Arabia issues New list of wanted terrorist suspects
London bombing explosive traced to Balkan Muslim extremists
Germany expels three suspected Islamic extremists (Bosnians & a Moroccan)
He is MI-6 spy and failed English politician caught cheating on his wife. Several years ago he was employed by Karadzic to promote Serbian interests. Then he switched sides - I guess muslim paying more. For his services he even got cottage by the Jablanica lake and hunting lodge in central Bosnia. He said he is planning to sell cottage and bay mountain cabin.
In 2001 he was member of the board for the International Crisis Group. He was in the good company with likes of George Soros and Wesley Clark. Recently, they removed his name – I guess it was too obvious.
You should not confuse religion with ethnicity. Catholic Encyclopedia is very clear:
Excluding some 30,000 Albanians living in the south-east, the Jews who emigrated in earlier times from Spain, a few Osmanli Turks, the merchants, officials. and Austrian troops, the rest of the population (about 98 per cent) belong to the southern Slavonic people, the Serbs.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02694a.htm
Andric was born in Roman-Catholic family but he considered himself a Serb for the most of his adult life. His work and his last will are very clear.
The Croats told the Serbs, "We've upped our demands."
The Serbs told the Croats, "Up yours."
In the early 20th century, both the Serbs and the Croats of Bosnia claimed the Muslims as part of their ethnic group--eventually the Tito regime created a new ethnic category for the Bosnian Muslims. In earlier times when the peasants were illiterate and nationalism had not spread to that area, a lot of Bosnians may not have identified themselves as Serbs or Croats but only by religion.
I knew that in his last 30 years Andric did not identify with the Bosnian Croats but had not heard that he called himself a Serb...there were a lot of people in Yugoslavia who avoided picking an ethnic group and just called themselves "Yugoslavs."
Rest assured that Vatican knows ethnicity of people it is dealing with. And usual way Pope was dealing with “Bosnians” for more then millennium was crusade:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/9892/bhhisto.html
Historically Bosnian “Croats” and “Muslim” are Serbs. They know their ancestors yield, converted and accepted religion of their oppressors - Islam and Roman-Catholicism. That’s big part of why so many of them hate those who did not capitulate and stayed Orthodox so much. Their origin is Serbian - they are just not ready to accept that.
I am fine with that and I accept their decision. At same time I recognize the truth, the same truth that best of “Croats” and “Muslim” were aware of. Take for example Mehmed Selimovic one of the greatest 20th century novelists of Southeastern Europe.
I descend from a Muslim family, from Bosnia, and by nationality I am a Serb. I belong to Serbian literature, while the literature of Bosnia, to which I also belong, I consider only as my geographic literature center, and not a distinct literature of Serbo-Croatian language... I belong, so, to the same nation and literature of Vuk, Matavulj, Stevan Sremac, Borisav Stankovic, Petar Kocic, Ivo Andric, and my deepest kinship with them I don't need to prove
http://www.answers.com/topic/mesa-selimovic
Who the heck I am to correct one Selimovic, or Andric?
Some historic facts on Serb Land of Bosnia
http://members.tripod.com/cafehome/serbdom-eng.htm
http://www.srpska-mreza.com/History/pre-wwOne/Bosnian-Serbs.html
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