Source:
https://www.bild.ba/podrska-vareskim-hr ... l1d_Md9UOUTranslation courtesy of Google...
Support for Vareš Croats: ‘I would tell my friends to put up an even bigger mast and flag. These are our rights and our symbols ’
On the night from Sunday to Monday, unknown perpetrators knocked down a mast and destroyed the flag of the Croatian people in BiH, which was displayed in the yard of the parish church in Vareš.
The flag was displayed in the churchyard and was located in the immediate vicinity of the memorial for the 125 killed HVO soldiers and Croatian civilians in Vareš.
All this was preceded by a chase against the display of the flag of the Croatian people in Vareš in the local Bosniak public, writes Dnevnik.ba.
Leon Pendić, the parish priest there, also spoke about everything, saying that such actions show the impossibility of coexistence.
"It simply came to our notice then. We display the same flags every year on the occasion of the patron saint of our parish. But this year such an ambience was created that what happened happened. It turned out that coexistence is understood here and that he lives only in words. Here it is asked to subordinate everything to another and then it is like coexistence. All this is very petty and ugly, "said Fr. Leon.
The mayor of Vareš, Zdravko Marošević, told Croatian Radio Bobovac that he had asked the police for information and that he had learned that the police had registered the incident and that they would try to find the perpetrators.
"I condemn this event and demand responsibility. The flag marks every monument to our fallen veterans. It is special that it is here on private, church, land. However, the same should be in the public space, just as the flags with lilies stand next to the symbols of the suffering of the Bosniak people and the army ", said the mayor of Vareš.
Political scientist Tomislav Soldo says in a statement for the Bild.ba portal that the symbol was placed for those who were killed because they are Croats.
“The flag, any, by definition, is a symbol of the representation of a nation or a social group. In this situation in Vareš, it is about the flag of Croats living in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This symbol was placed by the Croats there near the church in memory of those who were mostly killed just because they felt like Croats and said that the flag belonged to them, "he told Bild.ba
According to Soldo, this act showed the Croats of Vareš that they must not feel like Croats.
"Today, almost 30 years since the war, it is inconceivable that someone can hate to the extent that they do not recognize the identity of the Croats there, who make up a serious number in Vareš, even though they are not a mathematical majority. National, religious or any other identity should be something that no one in BiH should dispute. But here it is obviously about the fact that the motive for this act is exactly that - a challenge and that the Croats there were indirectly told that they could be Croats, but only within their four walls, "he said.
The rights and symbols of the Croats there, Soldo concluded, no one has the right to revoke.
"In about a month, it will be the anniversary of the persecution of Vareš Croats, who are being told in this way that they will probably go through the same thing in a new conflict. There is no need to say how bad and reprehensible it is, and I can only support friends of Croatian nationality in Vareš and tell them to put up as big a mast and flag as possible because no one can and must revoke their right, "he concluded in a statement for Bild.
