Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said on Tuesday he expected light to be shed on the fate of missing and killed Croats from Bugojno, central Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he laid wreaths and attended Mass in the Kandija parish, which was completely destroyed in the 1990s war.
“It’s very important to shed light on the dark past so we can live together, so we can open a new chapter of coexistence. It’s important to shed light on the past, on the fate of the missing, the killed. Their families are still alive,” Grlić Radman said in Kandija.
Croats in Bugojno are commemorating the 28th anniversary of suffering during the war with the Bosniak Army of BiH. In the summer of 1993, about 16,000 were driven out and about 300 were killed, while 15 top military and political officials, who were captured, taken to concentration camps and then killed, are still being traced.
Tomorrow, the search for their bodies will continue with excavations at Rostova, where the remains of four missing Bugojno Croats were exhumed last year.
In Kandija, Grlić Radman laid a wreath for the Croat victims of the Homeland and other wars.
He said Bugojno was a test for all in BiH in “bringing back the spirit of unity, tolerance, multi-ethnicity.”
The minister said it was sad that 16,000 Croats lived in Bugojno before the 1990s war and only 2,500 today.
“It’s necessary to create the prerequisites for their return. The Croatian government and all its institutions will help with appropriate crossborder cooperation projects and through EU funds. I'm sure the Croats of Bugojno will be able to return home and that the Croatian identity will be cultivated and shown here again, while respecting all other faiths and nations as it used to be.”
Grlić Radman underscored expectation that Croats in Bugojno and across the country would achieve equality. “Croats are indigenous to BiH and I believe that the new election law will show that, where they will be able to elect legitimate representatives to the highest state bodies, as foreseen by the Dayton Agreement,” he added.
Text: Hina/MFEA