A statement made by the leader of the main Bosniak party in the country about voters who keep electing Milorad Dodik for his secessionist policy caused an uproar in Bosnia among those who interpreted the statement as Bakir Izetbegovic’s hatred toward Serbs.

Speaking about what he thinks is behind Dodik’s policy and whether the Bosnian Serb political leader is serious when he keeps announcing the secession of the Bosnia’s Serb-majority Republika Srpska (RS) entity, Izetbegovic said that he believes Dodik wants to be remembered as a politician who kept the idea of secession open for some possible future times when such a thing would be possible.

“He knows he can’t do it. And when they say ‘there are no bad people, there are only bad leaders’ – I’m not so sure about that. He is appealing to a large number of people who support a raw Balkan policy,” Izetbegovic stated.

When asked whether he was talking about the Serb people as a whole, he said that he was talking about “voters who are supporting him because they want his rude behaviour.”

Dodik, who currently chairs Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency, said on Saturday that he is congratulating Izetbegovic for his honesty, adding that the Bosniak political leader finally showed what kind of Serbs are acceptable to him and his Party of Democratic Action, (SDA) – “those who are suitable and serve Bosniak interests.”

“I don’t think that Bosniak people are bad, on the contrary, they are good but a bit misfortunate. It never occurred to me to judge people based on Bakir Izetbegovic and some of his predecessors who are trapped within a century-long hatred toward Serbs and everything that is Serb,” Dodik told the SRNA news agency.

The leader of the United Srpska party, Nenad Stevandic, said Izetbegovic’s statement represents “pure fascism” and such an ideology “targeted peoples and then destroyed them and killed them, creating concentration camps such as Jasenovac.”

The head of the caucus of the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP), Perica Bundalo, said that Izetbegovic’s statement was “another stupidity,” which is raising political tensions and which is not contributing to reconciliation in BiH.

“Politicians like Izetbegovic should be dealing with real issues that will improve the lives and the standard of the citizens,” he said.
The President of the Serbian Parliament, Ivica Dacic, told TV Pink that “there are people whose only future is the past and who would lose their popularity if they would not be talking this way.”

Dacic said that the statement is “not adding to the stability of the region.”

“The easiest thing to do would be to reply in the same manner but here in Serbia we spoke about political priorities and President (Aleksandar) Vucic himself insisted on us not replying to daily accusations because a political chaos in the region is not in Serbia’s interest and regional stability is,” Dacic said.

“Bakir Izetbegovic himself told me that the biggest problems occur at times of anniversaries when we start accusing each other of who is supposed to be apologising to whom. Everybody thinks the other side should apologise and that’s where conflicts start,” he said, adding that it would be good to find a way to get out of this vicious circle that has been ongoing for two or three decades.

Sociology professor at the Banja Luka University Dusko Vejnovic told SRNA that politicians in BiH have to refrain from hate speech and from dangerous statements that refer to people and collectives.

“We should overcome intolerance and hate speech in BiH and raise political culture, dialogue, tolerance and inter-ethnic trust on all levels,” Vejnovic said.
All forms of populism and authoritarian behaviour on the BiH political scene should be avoided and cooperation between different ethnic groups should be maintained, he added.

Nermin Tulic, a Sarajevo actor who lost both of his legs during the war from a shell fired by Bosnian Serb forces, tweeted his outrage over Izetbegovic’s statement.
“I lost both of my legs on June 10, 1992, from a shell fired from a Serb army position on Trebevic but I never even thought this way, let alone said something like this. I have no intention of apologising on behalf of someone whose words I do not value. Honest Serbs will always have a friend in me,” Tulic said.
Analyst Svetlana Cenic, however, hinted that Izetbegovic’s statement was badly interpreted.

“I listened to it at least five times. I never heard that sentence about Serbs being bad people but I did hear him talking about Dodik and his voters who are supporting his rhetoric. Many voters also support Izetbegovic’s rhetoric and moves. So tell me, where is that sentence or am I watching the wrong video,” Cenic tweeted.
The Office of the High Representative (OHR), the international administrator in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also reacted to Izetbegovic’s statement.

“As the High Representative has emphasized several times in the context of war crimes denial and the glorification of war criminals, there are no bad peoples, there are only bad individuals,” the OHR told SRNA.