Mostar city councilors received an appeal Tuesday from international community members in Bosnia and Herzegovina to rename five streets in this city named after members of the World War II Croatian fascist regime which they say “do the city no honor.”

“It should be inconceivable that the streets of Mostar still bear the names of the Ustasha, names that keep Mostar nailed to a painful past. There are five such streets,” said the beginning of the statement, signed by, among others, by High Representative Christian Schmidt.

They called for work on a draft proposal to be considered by the entire Mostar City Council, with the aim of eliminating these controversial street names and finding appropriate new names that transcend ethnic and ideological divisions.

“It is time,” they said, “for that to be done immediately,” noting the readiness of the international community to support Mostar officials on that path. According to Mostar councillor Irma Baralija (Nasa Stranka), the ambassadors sent a letter a few weeks ago and councilors will discuss it on Tuesday.

She said that such a move forced the ruling coalition of the Democratic Action Party (SDA) and Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) to finally start changing the names of the streets. Baralija published the picture of the statement on Twitter which shows that the document was signed by the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, UK ambassador, Matt Field, US ambassador, Michael Murphy, EU ambassador to Bosnia, Johann Sattler, and the Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia, Kathleen Kavalec.