President Milanović at HVO anniversary: We have our state but we should ask ourselves how do Croats in BiH live whose rights are trampled on
“I am decorating you, members of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), and it is a great honour for me to bestow a decoration upon the small number of people you represent. The President of the Republic and Commander in Chief of the Croatian Armed Forces Zoran Milanović told “the small number of people who defended Croatia and made it possible to turn things around in our favour”, on the occasion of a celebration marking the 32nd anniversary of the foundation of the Croatian Defence Council in Knin today. The Order of Nikola Šubić Zrinski was presented for demonstrated prowess to the members of the 102nd Croatian Defence Council Brigade Odžak, the 108th Croatian Defence Council Brigade Ravne Brčko, the 111th XP Croatian Defence Council Brigade Žepče and the 115th Croatian Defence Council Brigade Zrinski.
“Croatia was defended in Kupres and Livno, that’s how Dalmatia was defended. By saying this I harbour no greed, ambitions or claims to what Bosnia and Herzegovina is – a state of three peoples, three constituent peoples,” President Milanović said in his address, adding that the members of the Croatian Defence Council, in addition to defending Bosnia and Herzegovina, their homes and their regions, defended Croatia too. “Many of you were suspected of various wrongdoings by the other two sides. Thirty years have passed and nobody has been indicted or imprisoned. I think that time has come to stop with the accusations and provocations. I think it’s time to stop blaming and provoking. The war is over, those people acted honourably during the war and now, thirty years later, we not only have no reason to be ashamed of them, but should instead be proud,” he noted.
He underlined that today, even though we live in Croatia, a member of the European Union, we should ask ourselves how the Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina live. “The Croats who remained living in Bosnia and Herzegovina have rights as a constituent people and in recent years those rights have been systematically neglected and trampled on. For this reason, as Croats, we must be more united, more determined and, if you wish, more brazen and demand what is ours. Even if it concerns something symbolic as the election of the member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. That is symbolic, but it is a matter of honour and pride too, a matter of integrity and one’s right to respect despite the fact that there is no real authority or power. It’s a matter of principle that the Bosniaks cannot elect the Croatian member of the Presidency. In Bosnia and Herzegovina there are Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks who must realize that, even though they are numerically greater, that doesn’t give them or anyone else greater rights. The Croatian state must fight for this. It must fight for the honour of its people!, the Croatian President stated.
In his address, he further referred to General Ljubo Ćesić Rojs who was put on the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions list in 2003. “For twenty years now he has been on a U.S. sanctions list – as once Gotovina, Markač and Ademi. Why? Because they “helped the separatist and criminal entity of Herzeg-Bosnia”, so it is written in the records of our allies”, the President warned and reminded that such organizing “was necessary to the Croats who would not survive without it”. Given that Herzeg-Bosnia is further referred to a criminal organization in the documents of our allies, and people continue to be treated as enemies, President Milanović said that the mission of the Croatian service, the Croatian diplomacy and Croatian politics is “for those accounts, that debt of honour towards the Croats and the Croatian Army and all Croatian units in Bosnia and Herzegovina to be rectified and put where they belong, and which is an honourable and visible place”.
President Milanović continued by saying that without the Croatian Army, without the Croatian Army brigades that liberated the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, there would be no Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina. “There would be no freedom or life for the Bosniaks, there would be no Sarajevo as the capital, there would be no Banja Luka as the capital of the Republic of Srpska. Without those Croatian forces, without Croatian guards brigades and without Croatian Defence Council brigades there would be no advance towards Manjača, the enemy would not be forced to surrender and what has been achieved in Dayton would not have been achieved by force of Croatian weapons, and what is now trampled on to the detriment of Croats”, the President noted.
“We ask that this be respected because it was not American and French planes that forced Karadžić and Mladić to a truce, to lay down their arms, to unblock Sarajevo and to go to Dayton, but it was the Croatian Army with five planes and seven helicopters and thousands of young people. People who were then told – now stop and go back. We just want respectful relations and in the fight for those respectful relations, Croatian politics in Zagreb must be united because we think alike. Our instruments and our power are much greater than thirty years ago. We are now integrated, we are members of the Western alliance, the Western value system, the European Union, and we did not go there to cause misery, misery, defiance and spite to others, but to defend our own and to be good with our neighbours”, President Milanović underlined.
In conclusion President Milanović told members of the Croatian Defence Council that thanks to them too Croats have their state. “Croatian women and men have their state and that’s most important. You ensured a state, you won the state, you defended it first of all as brothers of arms with your fellow Croats from Croatia and from all over the world who joined the fight, and thank you for that”, President Milanović said.
Prior to the ceremony marking the anniversary of the foundation of the Croatian Defence Council and the presentation of decorations, the President of the Republic and Commander in Chief of the Croatian Armed Forces Zoran Milanović paid tribute to the Croatian defenders by laying a wreath at the monument to the Croatian victory Oluja ’95 (Storm ’95) in the main square in Knin. Alongside President Milanović was the Special Adviser to the President for Homeland War Veterans Marijan Mareković.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Marko Beljan