Bosniak leaders behave like Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s, while Croatia's diplomacy is headed by "a handful of head-nodders and cowards," Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said on Friday.

“The current behaviour by the Bosniak leadership in Bosnia and Herzegovina follows the model of Slobodan Milosevic, their hangman from the 1990s,” Milanovic told a media conference during a visit to the Rakitje centre for war veterans.

He was referring to an action by the Croatian Republican Party leader Slaven Raguz, who was a guest in a recent political show for the Federation BiH Television in which he read out a message made by the former Serbian strongman about a political system not based on ethnic political bodies, and then asked the Bosniak guests in the show if they agreed with that. They answered in the affirmative, being unaware that Raguz had actually quoted Milosevic’s statement.

Milanovic underscored that a civic state in that neighbouring country was not an option for Croatia.

“Not only is that not possible but that is not in Croatia’s interest,” said Milanovic and added that he is “trying to find a solution so that Croats will not be abused the way some other minority was abused by the Belgrade ‘bazaar’ and Milosevic.”

He described his ‘vociferous’ stance about the Bosnian political situation amid ongoing negotiations on the election law which needs to be reformed so Bosniak votes do not once again elect Croat representatives, as “the only possible way.”

“There is no other way than being vociferous,” said Milanovic, who often criticises politicians in BiH.

“I am dealing with that every day while (Prime Minister Andrej) Plenkovic is dealing with lobbying in Brussels and resolving global conflicts on the Russian front,” he added.

‘Head-nodders and cowards’

Milanovic believes that Croatia’s government considers the issue in BiH as some sort of marginal annoyance.”

“This Croatian diplomacy is simply a handful of head-nodders and cowards, people who are a disgrace for Croatia,” he underscored and added that this comment referred to the most senior officials and not the entire service.