Relations between Bosnia and Croatia are highly strained over several issues, which could be the reason why the countries have still not names ambassadors to one another.
The problems between the two countries that are stemming from the 1990s are far from the only thing that is negatively affecting the relationship between them, according to former Bosnian ambassador to France and Egypt, Slobodan Soja.
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“Croatia, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina, will always have some special interests which they will protect in any way possible but I am afraid that Bosnia will not have someone to lobby for it in Zagreb, while there will certainly be someone to lobby for Croatia in Bosnia, and this is happening for years already,” he said.
Soja referred to a half a million Bosnian Croats, often represented in Bosnia’s government by officials who acted more in Croatia’s interest, rather than Bosnia’s.
The problems will persist, according to Soja, as Croatia is now an EU country and behaves as “someone who is in a position of power.”
“So, that position within the EU will often be abused,” he said, but added that regardless of all, Bosnia needs to achieve “some kind of good neighbourly cooperation with Croatia.”
Political Science professor at the Faculty in Zagreb, Dejan Jovic, agrees that Croatia often uses its position as an EU member country to politically intervene in Bosnia.
The naming of the ambassadors between the two countries is already taking unusually long due to specific circumstances. Jovic said that many Croats from Bosnia voted in all elections in Croatia, as they possess Croatian citizenship.
“Under such circumstances, it is very difficult to speak about normal diplomatic relations, as a number of citizens who are Croats can achieve their rights directly. They don’t use diplomatic-consular representative offices, so it is a specific situation which we cannot influence, and that is why I would say that the lack of an ambassador is not perceived as a very big problem in Croatia,” Jovic said.
But is there room for dialogue? Bosnian authorities have in the past few days openly talked about the case of Trgovska Gora, an issue which Bosnia and Croatia never communicated about.
Croatia has recently adopted a plan which names Trgovska Gora, an area close to Bosnia’s northern border, as the potential site where it will dump waste from a nuclear power plant.
This information caused concern among residents of Novi Grad, who told N1 in November last year the decision was “scandalous.”
The Minister of Spatial Planning, Construction and Ecology in Bosnia’s Serb-majority region of Republika Srpska (RS), Srebrenka Golic, said in early March that she sent Croatia requests for clarification regarding the issue, but that those were ignored.
The issue prompted Bosnia’s Presidency to send an official note to Croatia asking the country to refrain from using Trgovska Gora.
But the most pressing issue between the two countries is an alleged affair revealed by Bosnia’s ‘Zurnal’ investigative news organisation.
Zurnal published what it claimed to be interviews with Bosnians who said Croatia’s secret service, SOA, tried to recruit them to transport firearms to Bosnian masjids and create social media accounts in which they would praise the Islamic State.
Bosnia’s Security Minister, Dragan Mektic, confirmed the allegations, saying that Bosnia’s secret service has data proving it. According to the minister, the plan was for the weapons to be found following a tip-off.
Mektic said the goal was to portray Bosnia as a country which has issues with terrorism, which would prove earlier statements by Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, who said Bosnia was a hub for terrorists, as true.
Croatian officials, including Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, called the allegations “nonsense.”
The Security Ministry has forwarded classified documentation about the alleged affair to the Presidency on Tuesday. The details within them remain unknown.
Croatian journalist Viktor Ivancic has in one of his recent articles mentioned the ignorance of his country towards the evidence stated in media and by institutions.
But the issue regarding the naming of ambassadors on both sides could just be a result of irresponsibility. Former Croatian President, Stjepan Mesic, said that when now-president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic left her post as Croatia ambassador to the US, the country did not name a new ambassador in a year.
Meanwhile, Bosnia also lacks an ambassador in the UN, which is the most important ambassador position.
