Croatia has earmarked 24 million kuna (over €3.2 million) in this year’s state budget for projects of importance to Bosnia’s ethnic Croats. A senior official of the Central State Office for Croats Abroad, Zvonko Milas, signed contracts on Friday with 105 beneficiaries of these funds.
“We must unify even more, and there is no border that could separate us. The projects funded by the Government of Croatia are only some of the models which aim to make us more committed to each other, to bring us closer together and ensure a more dignified life to the future generations,” said Milas at the contract signing ceremony in the central Bosnian town of Vitez.
Croatian government will finance cultural, educational, science, health, and other programmes and projects of interest to Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2018, which is a clear message of unity and support with the goal of survival, Milas said.
After the government had earmarked 39 million kuna (€5.2 million) for aiding health care in Bosnia, more specifically to help the hospital in the city of Mostar repay its debts, today they decided to provide additional 24 million kuna (€3.2 million), a record amount in the last five years.
In the years 2013-2016, the government had earmarked 20 million kuna (€2.6 million) for Croats in Bosnia, raising the amount to 23.5 million kuna (€3.1 million) in 2017, 24sata news portal reported on Friday.
Bosnia Archbishop, Cardinal Vinko Puljic, said that Croat and Catholic identities in Bosnia and Herzegovina were interrelated and that it was important to keep the unity of Croats in the two countries alive.
“Wherever the Catholic Church survives, the identity of Croat people will survive too,” Puljic said, adding that Croats are one people regardless of where they live.
The unity among Croats matters, said Dragan Covic, Croat member of Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency.
“We will continue building and creating the future together but I also hope we will recognize legitimate representatives of Croat people in Bosnia, who will know to protect our interests in the long run. Because this is our people and our homeland, and we must know how to preserve it,” Covic said.
Ethnic Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina are the third most populous ethnic group in that country and are recognized by the Constitution as a constituent people, entitled to equal rights and representation in authority as other two constituent peoples – Bosniaks and Serbs.
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