Bosnia's Bosniak Presidency member Sefik Dzaferovic condemned, on Tuesday, Croatian President's claims of militant Islam taking over Bosnia and Herzegovina, saying her portrayal of Bosnia is the same as that used by Croat war criminals convicted of the joint criminal enterprise against Bosniaks from southern Bosnia.
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic’s claims are “lies fabricated by the aggressive and xenophobic policy of official Zagreb towards Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bosniaks, which has all the elements of fascism,” Dzaferovic said.
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“The statements of the President of the Republic of Croatia represent the same propaganda used by convicted war criminals and leaders of the so-called Herceg-Bosna when trying to justify the monstrous crimes they did against Bosniaks,” Dzaferovic noted.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic told the Israeli President that Bosnia is an unstable country, taken over by militant Islam and people with connections with Iran.
“Instead of distancing herself from the visit of the Croatian Deputy Parliament Speaker Milijan Brkic to the convicted war criminal Bruno Stojic, something every President of every civilized country would do, Grabar-Kitarovic thus supported this joint criminal enterprise policy, which is the true source of instability and undermining of peace in the region,” Dzaferovic emphasised.
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He called on the Croatian President to deal with the growing radicalisation and militarisation of neo-fascist movements in her own country instead of harming Bosnia’s reputation across the world.
A top Jewish community member in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Eli Tauber, condemned her statements as well saying “if President Grabar-Kitarovic’s claims were true, I don’t know how I would have been able to walk the streets of my city (Sarajevo).”
“What the Croatian President is talking about is Croatia’s foreign policy aimed at discrediting Bosnia before Europe,” Tauber noted.
The strongest Bosniak Party, the Democratic Action Party (SDA) also condemned Grabar-Kitarovic’s statements calling them arbitrary and malicious and saying they only represent her growing Islamophobia directed towards Bosnia and Bosniaks.
“Her islamophobic policy is based on ideas of ethnic and religious supremacy with elements of Fascism,” they said.
“It is paradoxical that the President of Croatia made statements containing elements of Fascism in Israel, while tolerating the growing militant Ustasha and neo-Nazi movements, which celebrate the NDH and the war criminals who participated in the Holocaust, in Croatia.
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) joined in on the condemnation saying that Grabar-Kitarovic’s statements were especially insulting because she said that in Israel, knowing full well that genocide in Europe was committed in against the Jews and Bosnian Muslims.
“Instead of helping heal the wounds from the past, Grabar-Kitarovic is intentionally spreading prejudice and falsifying facts,” the SDP said.
Even the former Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosot felt the need to react to the Croatian President’s statements, tweeting “apologies to the friendly and neighbourly Bosnia and Herzegovina and all its peoples.”
Isprike susjednoj i prijateljskoj Bosni i Hercgovini. Svim narodima.
— Jadranka Kosor (@_Jadranka_Kosor) July 30, 2019
The Croatian President stayed in a three-day visit to Israel where she spoke about paying respect to the Holocaust victims, treatment of jews in Croatia, possible economic cooperation with Israel and other topics.
