Director of the Bureau of Human Rights at the Democratic Initiative of Sarajevo Serbs, Dusan Sehovac, said today that the remaining Serbs in the Federation of BiH /FBiH/, 50,000 of them, are constitutive but not equal.
Pointing out that the theory of sustainable return of Serbs to the FBiH does not do, Sehovac told SRNA that this is about statistically negligible number of returnees.
“To be honest, some of the Serbs left the Federation voluntarily – economic migration, national migration /moved to Republika Srpska/, while most of them have been forcibly expelled from their centuries-old homes through war and by efficient means and activities in peacetime,” he has been precised.
According to him, the public has created an image that the FBiH is an entity of Bosniaks and Croats, and that the Serbs have nothing to look for there.
“And even if they look for, they will get a little, the crumbs, although the declared constitutionality guaranteed everything to them, while in reality, the constitutionality is forgotten and unrecognized,” Shehovac has pointed out.
He has assessed that there is a political show ongoing in the FBiH in which a small group of Serbs plays the role of legal and legitimate representatives of the people at all government levels, while Serbs do not hold important functions in the economy, social activities and public enterprises and services.
“In Sarajevo, where there are less than 10,000 Serbs nowadays, while there used to be approximately 180,000 Serbs before the war, although our constitutions guarantee the right of the municipal councils chairs to be representatives of other nations, because the Bosniaks hold mayoral positions, there are no Serbsat all,” said Sehovac.
According to him, Serbs in the FBiH do not elect their political representatives; others do it for them, as the Serbs do not have an electoral body entitled to select legal and legitimate representatives.
“I hope that the Serbs in Livno and Mostar will vote this year to elect their real representatives,” added Shehovac.
He has warned that Serb identity, religion, language and alphabet are denied in the FBiH and that traditional customs and lifestyle are fading.
“The FBiH is a tragic place where Serbs are not being born, children are not being baptized and do not go to school, do not celebrate graduations, diplomas and first jobs, do not get married. The Serbs in FBiH just die and move out,” Shehovac has concluded.
Noting that Serbs in the FBiH would appreciate assistance from Serbia and Republika Srpska in all its forms, Shehovac has expressed disappointment that it was not organised and implemented immediately after the war, when, he is convinced, it would have had both immediate and long-term effect.
Source: srna
