Izetbegovic: Croats must not feel as minority in Bosnia

N1

Bosnian Croats have officially given up on the idea of forming their separate, third entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to Bakir Izetbegovic, the leader of Bosniak main party SDA, who said in an interview with N1 that Bosnian Croats must not feel as a minority.

“Croat people in Bosnia and Herzegovina must not feel uncomfortable, they are not a minority, they must not feel bad in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also their representatives should not keep the position where they suppress the will in parliament. Finding a solution is a mastery,” said Izetbegovic.

As for the idea of establishing a third entity that would be dominated by Croats, SDA leader said the Croats and the leader of their strongest party in Bosnia and Herzegovina, HDZ BiH, Dragan Covic gave up on it.

“They are aware they are not even able to draw on a map where would a border be. No way. But, they are interested in setting up an institutional third entity. A capsule for Croats within institutions. They are mostly interested in houses of people,” Izetbegovic stressed.

Bosnia has a decentralised government system, consisting of two semi-autonomous regions – Bosniak-Croat shared Federation (FBiH) and Serb-dominated Republika Srpska. Each of the three major ethnic groups participates proportionally in the state-level authority.

But, Croats led by HDZ BiH leader claim they are not equal with the other two peoples and that this could lead to the non-functioning of the state. They particularly object the election of the left-leaning Democratic Front (DF) leader Zeljko Komsic as Croat member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency, claiming that he was elected owing to the votes of the Bosniaks.

The topic was also on agenda of the recent Zagreb meeting that was attended by Croatia's top officials, Izetbegovic and Covic.