Croats are the oldest constituent people in Bosnia and Herzegovina and one of the pillars of the modern Croatian state, President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said on Saturday at Open Day for Croats from Bosnia in her office.

“You are not guests, newcomers or an ethnic minority in Bosnia but its oldest constituent people which wants nothing more than peace and equality as the other two peoples in the common homeland of Bosnia,” she said, adding that Bosnia is not a state of one but three constituent peoples, which has been “a fact in Bosnia for decades and centuries.”

This fact “guarantees your constitutional rights and we have the duty to defend, interpret and promote that fact,” she said. “That is the threshold of your constitutionality and equality, and there is no retreating from that threshold. Together with you on that threshold stands Croatia.”

Grabar-Kitarovic said Croats in Bosnia had the right to elect political representatives who would “legitimately represent them at all government levels,” as well as the right to ethnic, cultural, educational and media institutions and the right to the equal use of the Croatian language.

In demanding those rights, Croats demand “nothing more than others” and that is the best way to preserve Bosnia as a state and that is how European values are built into Bosnia, she added.

She went on to say that Bosnia Croats, along with their “fellowmen and all patriots in Croatia” and expatriates, “are one the pillars of the modern Croatian state and our victory in the Homeland War.”

The president said her meeting with Croats from Bosnia was “an expression of the continuity of the policy of building national unity” as set out by Croatia's first president, Franjo Tudjman. “Not just you Croats who live in Bosnia as its native people, but also Croats who emigrated from Bosnia as well as those who emigrated from Croatia are part of the indivisible Croatian being.”

She called for the establishment of mechanisms for connecting Croats in Croatia, Bosnia and abroad so as to make it possible to put all “national resources to use for demographic renewal and survival in our homelands, the boosting of our economy, and political and cultural recognition in the world.”

“That's the goal of my policy, Croatian unity and a strong Croatia which will be also your safe support and a good neighbour,” Grabar-Kitarovic said.

Bosnia is the Croatian people's second homeland and Croats have been present in Bosnia more than a thousand years as well as “having done everything for the survival of Bosnia as a state,” she added.

The president said Croatia had made “the biggest possible political and military contribution” to Bosnia's defence and survival, and that Bosnia Croats voted for Bosnia's independence at a 1992 referendum and agreed to the creation of the Federation entity to contribute to “cooperation, peace and trust.”

She said Croatia had provided for hundreds of thousands of displaced persons from Bosnia during the 1990s war, “without looking at their faith or ethnicity”, and that it had facilitated humanitarian aid and “the armament of all defence forces.” Some in Bosnia forget or suppress that, she added.

Grabar-Kitarovic pushed for more intensive accession negotiations between the EU and Bosnia, provided that Croats are an equal people. The EU needs Bosnia and its accession would be of great political, cultural and security value, she said.

The EU and other influential international stakeholders “will make a big mistake with unforeseen consequences” if they do not back Bosnia's European journey, she added. “The journey isn't simple, but we want to and are willing to help, and you Croats in Bosnia are the guarantee that the end goal can be achieved.”

Banja Luka bishop Franjo Komarica told Hina that only a few Croats remained in the Bosnian Serb entity and called on Croatia's state leadership to help those wishing to stay and those wishing to return there. Four thousand families wish to return, he said.