Bosnian Presidency members, Dragan Covic and Mladen Ivanic, distanced themselves from the Presidency Charman’s letter of condolences to the Annan family, amid the death of the Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Chairman's cabinet condemned his move, saying the letter was exclusively based on facts.
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Presidency consists of 3 presidency members, each form one of the constituent peoples in the country, Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats, who serve as Presidency Chairman every 8 months.
The letter sent by Covic and Ivanic states that Chairman Bakir Izetbegovic cannot speak for the entire institution of Bosnia’s Presidency unless he agrees to do so with the other two members. This way, he acted exclusively as a Bosniak representative of the Presidency.
“Our colleague, Mr Iztbegoic, could not have sent the letter of condolences and published a public statement without previously consulting the two of us. Apart from expressing his own condolences, he expressed some unacceptable political qualifications,” Ivanic and Covic said. “We do not share the views expressed by Izetbegovic in the letter of condolences amid the death of Kofi Annan and we condemn such abuse of office by the Presidency Chairman.”
Izetbegovic’s cabinet did not take long to respond saying they reject and find Ivanic and Covic’s reactions unacceptable.
“Their letter was completely unclear as to explaining just what were the ‘unacceptable political qualifications’ expressed in Izetbegovic’s letter? Are they questioning the fact that genocide against Bosniaks took place in Srebrenica and that this was proven by the International Court of Justice in the Hague? Are they questioning the fact that the UN withdrew from the UN’s ‘protected’ zone of Srebrenica, thus allowing the massacre?,” Izetbegovic’s Cabinet asked.
“Are they, perhaps, questioning the fact that Kofi Annan himself announced a public apology for the mistakes made by the UN during the Bosniak war, stressing the Srebrenica event, for which he said would ‘haunt our history, eternally’.”
Izetbegovic's Cabinet found Dragan Covic's relation towards the Srebrenica genocide especially surprising, saying he has double standards for every subject.
They say that everything written in Izetbegovic’s letter was based purely on facts and Izetbegovic needs no one's permission to speak the truth which cannot be changed.
