Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic denied on Wednesday that she had described neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina as being "controlled by militant Islam" during her meeting behind closed doors with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin the day before, during her three-day official visit to Israel.
The controversial statement, which was condemned by Bosnian officials and Bosnia's Jewish community, was published by the Israeli daily Jerusalem Post, which listed topics Grabar-Kitarovic and Rivlin had discussed during their tête-à-tête meeting on Tuesday.
The article was mostly devoted to topics related to the Holocaust and a planned memorial which is to be built in Croatia's capital Zagreb, but added that Grabar-Kitarovic talked to Rivlin about the problem of the migrants increasingly crossing into Croatia from Bosnia on their way towards wealthier countries of western Europe.
“While nearly all claim to be Syrian refugees, most are actually African or Pakistani migrants who try to break through the border from Bosnia-Herzegovina, which Grabar-Kitarovic said was very unstable, and had in some respects been taken over by people who have connections with Iran and terrorist organizations. The country is now controlled by militant Islam, which is dominant in setting the agenda, she said, adding that some are very violent and break into people’s homes,” Jerusalem Post quoted Grabar-Kitarovic as saying in an article published on Tuesday evening.
When asked by Croatian reporters on Wednesday whether she had really said what the Jerusalem Post reported, Grabar-Kitarovic denied making those comments.
“Absolutely not… I talked with President Rivlin in the context of Bosnia and other neighbouring countries – and I said what I had said previously in news conferences before meeting Rivlin and (Israeli PM) Netanyahu, that I want to see our neighbours in the EU as soon as possible. I did not give any interviews and I did not give any statements to the press other than that,” Grabar-Kitarovic said.
In response to Jerusalem Post's report, Croat member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, Zeljko Komsic, denounced her reported statement as “propagandist activities which are damaging to Bosnia and Herzegovina,” and which “spread brutal lies,” while his Bosniak colleague, Sefik Dzaferovic, said that her alleged statement amounts to “lies fabricated by the aggressive and xenophobic policy of official Zagreb towards Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bosniaks, which has all the elements of fascism.”
When asked to respond to the strong reactions her alleged statements caused in Bosnia, Grabar-Kitarovic rejected them as ‘complete nonsense.’
“Those condemnations refer to the (Jerusalem Post) reporter's own comments… Let me repeat – I did not say this. As for the strong reactions, which compare Croatia to fascism – I strongly reject that as complete nonsense… The time has come for us to rethink the relationship between Croatia and Bosnia… But we have seen recently a number of steps that Bosnia made against Croatia which seem rather aggressive in nature… What we need is a dialogue on cooperation, to talk about how we can help each other. Croatia stands ready to help every neighbouring country in order to join the EU as soon as possible,” Grabar-Kitarovic said.
Later on Wednesday, the Jerusalem Post's reporter, Greer Fay Cashman, clarified for N1 television that Grabar-Kitarovic did not in fact speak to Rivlin either about Iran or the Bosnian government.
“The President of Croatia did not speak about Iran. She mentioned Iran in one word only, strictly in relation to migrants who pose as refugees and who in some cases are connected to unsavory elements. She did NOT mention the Government of Bosnia, and her remark concerning connections to Iran and terrorists, applied ONLY to some of the migrants who had found their way to Bosnia,” Cashman said in an e-mail.
