Bosnian Croat Academy of Sciences and Arts Presidency sent a letter on Thursday to Christian Schmidt, the High Representative in BiH, in which they asked him to stop the anti-Dayton and anti-constitutional activities of certain political party leaders as soon as possible.

“Instead of calming and pacifying the passions that incite hatred, they use incitement. quarrelsome rhetoric and verbal violence. they add fuel to the fire with their irresponsible statements, encourage destructive, warlike behaviour, and create an atmosphere of insecurity and concern. The fact that even after seven years, despite numerous meetings and agreements, the decision of the Constitutional Court on changes to the Election Law is not implemented is astonishing. We expect you, Mr Schmidt to finally implement this decision and for Croats to exercise their right to elect their representatives in the legislative and executive power. Croats have only two mechanisms left to protect their collective rights — the election of a member of the Presidency and the election of a representative in the House of Peoples — and they want to take hold of that right and appropriate it,” they stated.

The letter further stated that the request for amendments to the Election Law is not the position of only one Croat political party or its leader.

“As it is often presented in a tendentious manner, this is a general Croat problem and demand. All Croat political parties as well as cultural, educational, scientific institutions and prominent independent intellectuals clearly and loudly expressed their opinion in this regard. We are not asking for any privilege or anything to the detriment of other peoples, but only those human and collective rights that the other two constitutive peoples have. If the Croats are fewer in number, it does not mean that they have fewer rights, that they are not worthy of European democratic standards. The so-called civic organization of BiH is a mask for unitarization, for institutional supremacy and complete domination of a larger people. We believe that this concept is not achievable, it is ahistorical because Bosnia and Herzegovina is made up of three constituent, sovereign and equal peoples. BiH is made up of differences — linguistic, cultural, ethnic, religious — that are historical, but also its reality. Differences are not an obstacle to achieving cooperation, mutual respect and recognition of formed plural identities, but problems arise when differences are attempted to be erased, to be reduced to one measure. Unitarization is against the existing Constitution, the Dayton provisions. The referendum question from 1992, as well as the decisions of ZAVNOBiH from 1943,” they said.