"Dodik wants to break Bosnia apart"

Mesic missed his calling in life. He should have been a guslar, with all the lamentations he weaves. It's slightly more than a little disingenuous to be referring to the decline in demographics in a post-conflict politial entity when prior to 1994, Croatia itself had anywhere from 12 - 15% Serbs, and now has 4% at best. If he's so upset with the drop in multiethnicity, methinks he should work hard to facilitate such conditions in his own backyard.

In fact Mesic, most of the inhabitants of Bosnia & Hercegovina do not want that state to exist, including your own Croat population there. It is an artifical state, and that is why it will fail. Republika Srpska will be free, and you guys will be stuck with the muslims. Have fun.
As for the border dispute with Slovenia, don't worry too much about that, because Istra will eventually declare independence and join Italy again. You see, we Serbs were awarded Istra because we won the war, but Tito gave it to you anyway. That injustice will be fixed. When Istra declares independence, us Serbs will gladly support them, and support Italy. And voila, no more border dispute with Slovenia! What goes around comes around.
Cheers!!

"Dodik wants to implement a referendum for separation in these circumstances, which we will not accept,” Mesić told reporters"

Mesic has no problems trying to break Serbia appart by recognizing Kosovo. I guess Croatia is not happy about being the second most influential country after Serbia in the former Yugoslavia. Mesic, what you think is totally irrelevant. You are not a citizen of RS nor will you ever be, so mind your own business.
Also Mesic should bring more attention on bringing back the 300.000 Serbs expelled from Krajina and other parts of Croatia instead of critisizing RS. RS is a lost cause to Bosnia. It's just a matter of time. This is Serbian land, has always been and will always be.

Yes Mesic, what was the population of Serbians in Croatia before and after the war? The same question can be asked to our ethnic Albanian citizens regarding Kosovo. Isn't it funny how everyone seems to forget their own role in ethnic cleansing?

Ooooh my dear Mesic, somehow now Croatia is a big supporter of a unified Bosnia, but when the time was ripe for the pickings Tudjman and the rest of the Cro company didn't seem to have a problem turning their backs on their Bosniak counterparts and carving out their own little entity in Bosnia. It took Clinton's direct involvement to force Tudjman to make the Bosnian Croats relinquish their dream of unifying with mother Croatia. And after Dayton they worsened their position even more by being thrown into the Federation with the Bosniaks who vastly outnumbered them, not to mention the Croatian governments plan of giving houses and land Serbs were cleansed from to Bosnian Croats even further reducing their numbers. So now that the Croats have no bargaining position and strength Mesic wants to take that away from the Serbs. Too bad for him they played their hand alot better than the Croatians and alot better than most people think.

Mesic quoted in 1991 addressing the Croatian parliament, to a roudn of applause:

"My job is done Yugoslavia is no more."

Mesic was quickly promoted to presidfent of the Croatian parliament. A job he held until 1994 [strangely the pro-Bosnian Mesic quit around the time it became clear that Tudjman was ready to sign the agreement unifying Bosnian Croat and Bosnian Muslim forces, negotiations mediated by the states) -- hence Mesic quit because Tudjman under U.S. pressure decided to support a unified Bosnia.

Oh Mesic. Too bad people don't have collective amnesia.

Go Croatia, don't allow it, NATO is with you!
(aRTa, 31 October 2009 14:47)

what does croatia or nato have anything to do with bosna? and roberto, you are such a tool. as soon as i see your name on a comment it's automatically thumbs down. you will go on spewing garbage in support of this neo-fascist for 2 pages without even bothering to check to see if what he is saying is right. croats never made up more than 15% of the population of bosnia. what about breaking up yugoslavia? that was ok? serbia? ok! bosnia? noo0o! croatia?? hell no!! why not?

Taken from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_of_Bosnia_and_Herzegovina

Federacija
1991 (Prewar)

* Bosniaks = 1,436,498 (52.1%)
* Croats = 610,458 (22.1%)
* Serbs = 485,933 (17.6%)
* others = 224,999 (8.2%)

1996 (Postwar)

* Bosniaks = 1,773,566 (72.5%)
* Croats = 556,289 (22.8%)
* Serbs = 56,618 (2.3%)
* others = 58,192 (2.4%)

That means about 600,000 Serbians + others are no longer in Federacija.

Ummm mesicu... YOU ARE IN CROATIA. Not in RS. So you have no say in this. Based on ur illegal recognition of Kosovos fake and illegal declaration of independence, RS has full right to separate from Bosnia. And within a legal framework. CCCC

Sorry, calculation was based on BiH and not RS so my mistake.

Actual figures are as follows:

Federacija Prewar - There were 480,000 Serbians in that region.

Federacija Postwar (2002) - only about 40,000 remain. That means 1% of Federacija are Serbians. My goodness, where did the 440,000 go? Ethnic cleansing Mr Roberto?

...said the Mesic after his "back in past" famous statement that he was proud to be the last President of Yugoslavia? The man who builds the bridges, indeed? Hehehe

Following the same principle, now you will be seeing the end of Bosnia and if you suffer sudden change in etnical principles you will have Bosnian Muslims and few lovely, after ethnic war left behind, Mujahedins to socialize with.

So long and goodbye forever.

Oh and Mesicu... How many Serbs are left in Krajina after croatians committed ethnic cleansing against them? That should answer why there are no croats in RS.

Mesic, for a start, R.S. had about 56 percent serbs in 1991, and another 6 er so percent Yugoslavs - mostly serbs. The Bosniak and Croat totals were never that high. Second, it is true that R.S. is so much serbian - but ask yourself why. One factor is that thundreds of thousands of serbs were displaced against their will into R.S. Look at the big picture.

Breaking up Bosnia is a GOOD thing.

The international community is playing with fire, for we ALL know, this peaceful transition won't last forever. It really doesn't matter how long the guns remain silent, the return of shotgun diplomacy is always nearby.

So, in order to avoid this by learning from past MISTAKES, let the two ethnic groups, Serbs and Croats go their separate ways in joining Serbia and Croatia. The Moslems will surely start an Islamic State , a nice transit point into Western Europe for terrorists.

roberto

You are, as usual, not telling the truth. Bosnia muslims can go to RS without problems. Show me one case were a muslim or croat has gotten hurt in RS after the war? In Sweden I used to work with a muslim man from Banja Luka. With his family he went there on vacation every summer and never got in any trouble for being muslim. This is just one of many examples. It is just propaganda. No where else in the balkans are there so many minorities like in Serbia and on Serbian soil in Republika Srpska. Show me the number of Serbs that have returned to Krajina, muslim/croat areas in Bosnia and Kosovo? Serbs have always been and will always be the most tollerant people in the Balkans. Bosnian muslims and croats should also accept that there is no turning back for RS. It is a separate entity so deal with it.

republica srpska = separate
istra and the coast = Italy
krajina = Serbs all Serbs to return to their lands there was over 700,000 Serbs there and now 300,000 all have to return to their homes and the land of krajina

mesic = mind your own business.

Commenting on the situation in Bosnia, Mesić said that currently Bosniaks and Croats make up eight percent of the population in RS, and once made up 48 percent.

“Dodik wants to implement a referendum for separation in these circumstances, which we will not accept,” Mesić told reporters in Zadar.
---
Just WOW! 48% to 8%. What happened to their properties? No wonder Serbs want to declare "independence" in land cleared by brutal ethnic cleansing like in Foca (now Srbinje!) Srebrenica etc. Go Croatia, don't allow it, NATO is with you!

Mesić said that currently Bosniaks and Croats make up eight percent of the population in RS, and once made up 48 percent.
--
Basic Mathematics:

Republika Srpska Before
Muslims+Croats=48%
Serbians=52%

Federacija Before
Muslims+Croats=52%
Serbians=48%

Republika Srpska After
Muslims+Croats=8%
Serbians=92%

Federacija After
Muslims+Croats=92%
Serbians=8%
--
Now of course the percentages are estimates as there are certainly non-Serbian/Croat/Muslims in BiH but you get the jist.

This is just playing with numbers. Tomorrow Tadic can claim that Federacija once had 48% Serbians and today only has 8%. Those ethnic cleasers in Federacija are the reason why RS should separate.

Serbian haters like Roberto wouldn't have a leg to stand on based on his argument today. It's the blind finger pointers that will ended up splitting BiH. You see, personally I don't support it. The only way BiH can survive is to get over the propaganda of the past and to form some kind of union with Serbia. If the Croats in BiH don't like that they can always exchange Krajina for their part of BiH.

Once the West stops with the divide and conquer games we may actually start to make some progress.

Mesic is certainly a hypocrite but it's obvious Dodik wants to break apart BiH with Putin & Tadic's support. As Russia controls the EU more & more via natural gas, as we see with Germany & Italy, especially Italy's latest threat to prosecute Djukanovic, EU membership will see the increased return of Serbs to Krajina & autonomy 20 years down the line, meaning that CRO is rushing to its own demise.

Why does this guy always have to mingle with someone else country, doesn't he have enough to clean in front of his door and even more inside of the house!!
As least he found to nationalist anti-serb supporters.

What is your problem Mr. Mesic? You got everything you wanted. You cleansed most of serbs out of Croatia, croats and bosniaks are united as best frends and serbs are separate now. Seems to me that there is no reason to blame serbs any more, but you are so used to always blaming serbs no matter what. Serbs obviously want to run their affairs and letting you run yours so there is no more blame going around at each other. Serbs everywhere wish you the best, so why don't you do the same for serbs.

mesic is to worried about Serb affairs will he cant do nothing and in republica srpska its 96% Serbs and 4% Muslims and Croats today, and even then it was not even close to 48% like he thinks. let the vote begin and separate and croats in Bosnia is not even 15% anymore they have dropped to about 12% because they had what about 600,000 croats in bosnia but now they say its about 499,000 and the Serbs are 1,700,000, so mesic should worry about croatia and not everyone else. and another thing for him is the waters is Slovenian and not croatian waters and istra that whole coast line was and will again be Italian lands the Italians should move in with the Serbs since all that land was populated in history Serbs and Italians and now there is barley anyone there, but Serbs are moving back and Italians should take their land back since there is NO more Yugoslavia that land was given to Yugoslavia after the war after they were defeated by the partisans which were 80%+ Serbs anyway, so realistically croatia was about Zagreb because the rest like krajina WAS and WILL be Serbian land again they have the papers to prove it, and in history it was Serbian land since they fought of the turks and the rest was Austrian and Hungarian lands croatia was zagreb.

Again I say: but then what about Kosovo?

Keep connecting the two issues because Kosovo is not (and will never be) a unique case.

Hope all of the Balkans join EU soon!

Lol @ Mesic. Mesic will accuse Dodik, make-up some bogus secessionist activities and "prove" Dodik had a hand in them(The US and EU can help to organize).At which point, the Croatians in Bosnia will declare their independence and Croatia will annex the newly proposed state. Although China and Russia will ensure that Serbia gets the same deal. Like clock work.

Apologies to the Serbian camp for over exaggerating the percentage of Serbians in Federacija. These are the undisputed results from Wikipedia.

Republika Srpska

Muslims/Croatians: 12%
Serbians: 88%

Federacija

Muslims/Croatians: 98%
Serbians: 1%

Shame on Mesic,
If any country ever was founded on mass killings and ethnic cleansing it is current Republic of Croatia (phase 1: NDH; phase 2: Storm).

6) Croatia will NOT allow it

What a threat! Serbia is quivering!

Mesic, another myopic politician that only sees his side. He is obviously the pot, calling the kettle black. What about the displaced Serbs from Croatian areas? And wasn't it the US and the EU that started the dismembering of the former Yugoslavia? Why does he not mention this? In my humble opinion, all the ethnicities in the former Yu should split, they cannot, and do not, want to live together anymore. Everyone should have their own little nationalistic country, fly their own little nationalistic flag, and put down other ethnicities in the comfort of their own little country. Maybe then, living in their own little countries, everyone in the Balkans, with NATO and russian supervision, can at long last become good neighborst?

aRTa

I cant stop laughing about the next sentence” Go Croatia, don't allow it, NATO is with you!” Milorad Dodik is going through the process of destroying Bosnia in front of your beloved NATO, you know the thing that surrounds Serbia. Just how is Croatia going to stop the Serbs? I know with Croatia’s military prowess, but they could only afford to send 200 troops to Afghanistan. Maybe they will withdraw the 200 and then threaten the Serbs…ha ha ha!

You missed the part where he said "we will not allow it." Krajina was offered the Z4 plan but they didn't take it
(aRTa, 31 October 2009 22:37)

Croatia is too weak and no factor.
Only the US could do this but they support the Republika Srpska.
Even Biden,Holbrooke,Dan Fried said that the RS "will stay forever" (I quote Dan Fried).

Mesic is a Greater Croatian nationalist,he believes that Bosnia should be annexed by Croatia.
He is very prefigant and that is what makes him so dangerous,publicly he supports a unified Bosnia and attacks the RS,secretly he hopes to provoke a new war in Bosnia (of course only with the support of the whole Western world)
which should result in the expuslion of the Serbs.
Bosnia with only Muslims in it would than be a lot easier to swallow for him.
That is why he is always appealing to Bosniaks in his "we are one and the same people" attitude.
Not out of sympathy but because he hopes they would later join a Greater Croatia.
And of course the Germans support his criminal policy in the EU.
Make no mistake,Germany again is pursuing its hitlerist foreign policy of supporting Croats and Albanians against the Serbs,there is no difference between the Third reich and the Germany of today.
I must give Mesic a credit tough,he is a much more capable politician than our Tadic and Cvetkovic.
These guys have the intellect of a goat,everytime they open their mouth it is something about"We must join EU!"
If you would ask them about the waether they would answer with one of their EU platitudes while the state is meanwhile going down the tubes.

RE; Mesic Comments are either misquoted or he continues to blasphemy all Yugoslav people.

Please see below, the 1991 census of the population of Bosnia & Herzegovina. The Croatia population was 17% Where is this 48% coming from? Well, he must be claiming that the the other 30% is coming from so called Muslims who were converted from Catholic Croats during the Ottoman rule. There may be some truth to it, but many Serbs of Christian Orthodox Faith were also converted to Muslims during Ottoman rule.




Municipality Total Muslims by nationality1 Serbs Croats Yugoslavs Others

TOTAL 4,377,033 (100.00%) 1,902,956 (43.47%) 1,366,104 (31.21%) 760,852 (17.38%) 242,682 (5.54%) 104,439 (2.38%)

# Commenting on the situation in Bosnia, Mesić said that currently Bosniaks and Croats make up eight percent of the population in RS, and once made up 48 percent.

“Dodik wants to implement a referendum for separation in these circumstances, which we will not accept,” Mesić told reporters in Zadar.
---
Just WOW! 48% to 8%. What happened to their properties? No wonder Serbs want to declare "independence" in land cleared by brutal ethnic cleansing like in Foca (now Srbinje!) Srebrenica etc. Go Croatia, don't allow it, NATO is with you!
(aRTa, 31 October 2009 14:47)

thanks mesic, thanks arta, for speaking the simple and obvious truths. we all know how rs was built, and how it has been maintained. even the other side admits it -- they just don't care, and find a host of rationalizations and excuses. endless and forever.

i know a number of persons (bosniak) who had property in places now called "rs" and who never wish to return there, given the apartheid conditions. and the war criminals openly walking the streets (it's quite true -- ask survivors if you don't believe me.) many cases in prijedor, just to name one example.

unfortunately, the bosniaks who are selling have often been swindled by various (serb) lawyers and other parties whom they trusted, who took and take full advantage of the situation (a la dodik, etc) and who hold an utter lack of morals.

mesic is one of the FEW public officials who will call a spade a spade -- that is his nature. and for it, he has been hated by many, inside croatia and out. but i say, thank you, for speaking out, where others are simply too cowardly.

roberto
frisco

Roberto,

You badly shot yourself in the leg, with gun that Mesic loaded.

As long as I've participated in this comments forum it has day by day become more obvious that you have some some agenda than searching for facts and truth.

Zivela Srbija - RS is Serbian land, and it will come under the fold of Belgrade soon. Mesic can chirp as much as he wants about Bosnia, but the borders have been established, thanks to tudjman by the way, in his cleansing of Krajna. Live with your actions now, Croats.

Mesic is right, it is in nobody's interest to break this country. International community know that Bosnia is a just cause to fight for and they will. NATO is in Bosnia, and it won't allow a destruction of the country before their eyes. But more importantly, the patriotic Bosnian people of all ethnicity and religions won't allow this to happen either.

Tadic also said on TV a couple of days ago that the national interest of Serbia is united BIH. Is this true? Yes. He doesn't like to destroy Serbia because of Republica Srpska.

Bosnia can NOT be divided because of the following reasons:

1) Srebrenica, nobody can take it from Bosnia, never
2) Bihac region, no one wants to create another Gaza in the middle of Europe
3) Brcko corridor (no territorial continuity for RS)
4) new war would break and new wave of refugees would flood Europe, new genocide might be committed...
5) Sandjak
6) Croatia will NOT allow it

So, keeping the status-quo with small Constitutional changes to make the state functional is the best option for everyone but the nationalists, like Dodik, who just want to conceal their criminal and corruption activities.

(Gossamer, 1 November 2009 16:08)

The game is over for your jihadist intentions of creating a Muslim national state of Bosnia(like Mustafa Ceric,the Reis Il Ulema said).
Republika Srpska is established,it is strongly guaranteed by the West(except Germans)and Serbia will go to war with Croatia or the Muslims if they try something,and this time the Americans will be on our side because they want the RS.
Just try something 10 million Serbs will gather in no time ...
As for this propaganda that RS is "ethnically cleansed" we Serbs do not need to argue over that because it is not true.
The other side is using it for a excuse for their ethnical cleansings...

One more time Stipe Mesic is right about Dodik intentions. The gerrymandered Bosnian territories currently occupied by Republika Srpska is only homogeneous because of the war crimes of the 90’s and the presence of the same old church-political-economic authoritarian Serb elites that supported Serb dictator Solbodan Milosevic and ruined Yugoslavia.

UNHCR Serbia page: http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e48d9f6.html

IDPs 227,879
Refugees 96,739

In 1993 and for quite a few years after, Serbia hosted close to a million refugees from Bosnia and Croatia. I'll see if I can dig up the link

Lets be clear on one thing in regards to demographics of BiH. There hasn't been a Census in that country for almost 20 years. 1992-1996 changed the demographics of that country in a huge way. Nobody can say that the muslims are a majority-where is the proof. Muslims today are not what their granparents were. Having 8-10 children just does not exist in todays BiH. Mike C mentions the return of the 300,000 Serbs to the so called Krajina region. Mike C is reluctant to mention the return of 90.000 Croats and Bosniaks to the Posavina region. Serbian views are always one way-they never look at the bigger picture. Also for the record for those that don't know about Balkan history and keep calling Croats fascists, it was the Croats that right Croats who formed the first "Partizan" unit in Sisak in 1941. The world
"USA" will never allow BiH to be divided officially.

6) Croatia will NOT allow it

Serbia watchout the Croats are bring back all of their 200 troops from Afghanistan to launch an assault you.

Me thinks you see yourselves greater than you really are! Who is Croatia? Nothing but a struggling little country that relies on EU handouts otherwise it would have collapsed years ago.

If your President Mesic could bring back Yugoslavia he would trade the lot of you tomorrow for a couple of Euros. He can see that sooner or later Bosnia will split up; Serbia will take RS while the Bosniaks will take the rest because Croats are no longer an ethnic group but a minority. Mesic’s page in history say from “a rooster to a feather duster” in a decade.

Let's face the truth; there is no future for the state of Bosnia. It is already obvious it can't follow others, not economically nor in the development towards European integration. I am really wondering which direction the Balkans are heading. In a few years, within EU, Serbia and Croatia will more and more represent the same issues and I think together their efforts will be much more succesfull (and much less overlooked by other states with more influence). In a few more decades, when the wars will be more or less forgotten, there will and should be new ideas about a reunification of Serbia and Croatia (incl. Bosnia and possibly Montenegro). In the past, warcrimes were not an obstacle to form one country together and I really think there will be a time to think seriously about this possibility. This Serbo-Croatia (or a new Yugolavia) of the future could be an almost monolinguistic state with just differences in religion. Strong differences maybe, but multi-religious states can be found all over the world... Don't forget about the past, but stop reconstructing it. Nothing can be changed about things that happened. Look in the future and think of how countries could benefit from eachother... That is exactly how western society's got relatively prosperous.

"Republika Srpska will be free, and you guys will be stuck with the muslims."

You missed the part where he said "we will not allow it." Krajina was offered the Z4 plan but they didn't take it

Mesic, worry about the problems in your house before you go meddling in your neighbours backyard. There's an old saying, "Mind your own business."

After being confronted with facts like population statistics, the likes of Robert and Arta are not to be found... I guess they cannot handle truth.

@Gossamer

Exactly, one sentence says it all! The truth is so simple!

Why have my comments been deleted? This is a very interesting story to me, I believe that if Russia have accepted to play the US game of breaking up countries and recognized S.Osetia and Abhazia the Serbs should do the same recognize Kosovo and recognize every territory where they live as an independent country.

Commenting on the situation in Bosnia, Mesić said that currently Bosniaks and Croats make up eight percent of the population in RS, and once made up 48 percent.

“Dodik wants to implement a referendum for separation in these circumstances, which we will not accept,” Mesić told reporters in Zadar.
---
Just WOW! 48% to 8%. What happened to their properties? No wonder Serbs want to declare "independence" in land cleared by brutal ethnic cleansing like in Foca (now Srbinje!) Srebrenica etc. Go Croatia, don't allow it, NATO is with you!

# Commenting on the situation in Bosnia, Mesić said that currently Bosniaks and Croats make up eight percent of the population in RS, and once made up 48 percent.

“Dodik wants to implement a referendum for separation in these circumstances, which we will not accept,” Mesić told reporters in Zadar.
---
Just WOW! 48% to 8%. What happened to their properties? No wonder Serbs want to declare "independence" in land cleared by brutal ethnic cleansing like in Foca (now Srbinje!) Srebrenica etc. Go Croatia, don't allow it, NATO is with you!
(aRTa, 31 October 2009 14:47)

thanks mesic, thanks arta, for speaking the simple and obvious truths. we all know how rs was built, and how it has been maintained. even the other side admits it -- they just don't care, and find a host of rationalizations and excuses. endless and forever.

i know a number of persons (bosniak) who had property in places now called "rs" and who never wish to return there, given the apartheid conditions. and the war criminals openly walking the streets (it's quite true -- ask survivors if you don't believe me.) many cases in prijedor, just to name one example.

unfortunately, the bosniaks who are selling have often been swindled by various (serb) lawyers and other parties whom they trusted, who took and take full advantage of the situation (a la dodik, etc) and who hold an utter lack of morals.

mesic is one of the FEW public officials who will call a spade a spade -- that is his nature. and for it, he has been hated by many, inside croatia and out. but i say, thank you, for speaking out, where others are simply too cowardly.

roberto
frisco

"Republika Srpska will be free, and you guys will be stuck with the muslims."

You missed the part where he said "we will not allow it." Krajina was offered the Z4 plan but they didn't take it

Mesic is right, it is in nobody's interest to break this country. International community know that Bosnia is a just cause to fight for and they will. NATO is in Bosnia, and it won't allow a destruction of the country before their eyes. But more importantly, the patriotic Bosnian people of all ethnicity and religions won't allow this to happen either.

Tadic also said on TV a couple of days ago that the national interest of Serbia is united BIH. Is this true? Yes. He doesn't like to destroy Serbia because of Republica Srpska.

Bosnia can NOT be divided because of the following reasons:

1) Srebrenica, nobody can take it from Bosnia, never
2) Bihac region, no one wants to create another Gaza in the middle of Europe
3) Brcko corridor (no territorial continuity for RS)
4) new war would break and new wave of refugees would flood Europe, new genocide might be committed...
5) Sandjak
6) Croatia will NOT allow it

So, keeping the status-quo with small Constitutional changes to make the state functional is the best option for everyone but the nationalists, like Dodik, who just want to conceal their criminal and corruption activities.

Mesic missed his calling in life. He should have been a guslar, with all the lamentations he weaves. It's slightly more than a little disingenuous to be referring to the decline in demographics in a post-conflict politial entity when prior to 1994, Croatia itself had anywhere from 12 - 15% Serbs, and now has 4% at best. If he's so upset with the drop in multiethnicity, methinks he should work hard to facilitate such conditions in his own backyard.

Ooooh my dear Mesic, somehow now Croatia is a big supporter of a unified Bosnia, but when the time was ripe for the pickings Tudjman and the rest of the Cro company didn't seem to have a problem turning their backs on their Bosniak counterparts and carving out their own little entity in Bosnia. It took Clinton's direct involvement to force Tudjman to make the Bosnian Croats relinquish their dream of unifying with mother Croatia. And after Dayton they worsened their position even more by being thrown into the Federation with the Bosniaks who vastly outnumbered them, not to mention the Croatian governments plan of giving houses and land Serbs were cleansed from to Bosnian Croats even further reducing their numbers. So now that the Croats have no bargaining position and strength Mesic wants to take that away from the Serbs. Too bad for him they played their hand alot better than the Croatians and alot better than most people think.

Yes Mesic, what was the population of Serbians in Croatia before and after the war? The same question can be asked to our ethnic Albanian citizens regarding Kosovo. Isn't it funny how everyone seems to forget their own role in ethnic cleansing?

Again I say: but then what about Kosovo?

Keep connecting the two issues because Kosovo is not (and will never be) a unique case.

Hope all of the Balkans join EU soon!

"Dodik wants to implement a referendum for separation in these circumstances, which we will not accept,” Mesić told reporters"

Mesic has no problems trying to break Serbia appart by recognizing Kosovo. I guess Croatia is not happy about being the second most influential country after Serbia in the former Yugoslavia. Mesic, what you think is totally irrelevant. You are not a citizen of RS nor will you ever be, so mind your own business.
Also Mesic should bring more attention on bringing back the 300.000 Serbs expelled from Krajina and other parts of Croatia instead of critisizing RS. RS is a lost cause to Bosnia. It's just a matter of time. This is Serbian land, has always been and will always be.

Mesic is certainly a hypocrite but it's obvious Dodik wants to break apart BiH with Putin & Tadic's support. As Russia controls the EU more & more via natural gas, as we see with Germany & Italy, especially Italy's latest threat to prosecute Djukanovic, EU membership will see the increased return of Serbs to Krajina & autonomy 20 years down the line, meaning that CRO is rushing to its own demise.

...said the Mesic after his "back in past" famous statement that he was proud to be the last President of Yugoslavia? The man who builds the bridges, indeed? Hehehe

Following the same principle, now you will be seeing the end of Bosnia and if you suffer sudden change in etnical principles you will have Bosnian Muslims and few lovely, after ethnic war left behind, Mujahedins to socialize with.

So long and goodbye forever.

In fact Mesic, most of the inhabitants of Bosnia & Hercegovina do not want that state to exist, including your own Croat population there. It is an artifical state, and that is why it will fail. Republika Srpska will be free, and you guys will be stuck with the muslims. Have fun.
As for the border dispute with Slovenia, don't worry too much about that, because Istra will eventually declare independence and join Italy again. You see, we Serbs were awarded Istra because we won the war, but Tito gave it to you anyway. That injustice will be fixed. When Istra declares independence, us Serbs will gladly support them, and support Italy. And voila, no more border dispute with Slovenia! What goes around comes around.
Cheers!!

Go Croatia, don't allow it, NATO is with you!
(aRTa, 31 October 2009 14:47)

what does croatia or nato have anything to do with bosna? and roberto, you are such a tool. as soon as i see your name on a comment it's automatically thumbs down. you will go on spewing garbage in support of this neo-fascist for 2 pages without even bothering to check to see if what he is saying is right. croats never made up more than 15% of the population of bosnia. what about breaking up yugoslavia? that was ok? serbia? ok! bosnia? noo0o! croatia?? hell no!! why not?

One more time Stipe Mesic is right about Dodik intentions. The gerrymandered Bosnian territories currently occupied by Republika Srpska is only homogeneous because of the war crimes of the 90’s and the presence of the same old church-political-economic authoritarian Serb elites that supported Serb dictator Solbodan Milosevic and ruined Yugoslavia.

Breaking up Bosnia is a GOOD thing.

The international community is playing with fire, for we ALL know, this peaceful transition won't last forever. It really doesn't matter how long the guns remain silent, the return of shotgun diplomacy is always nearby.

So, in order to avoid this by learning from past MISTAKES, let the two ethnic groups, Serbs and Croats go their separate ways in joining Serbia and Croatia. The Moslems will surely start an Islamic State , a nice transit point into Western Europe for terrorists.

Ummm mesicu... YOU ARE IN CROATIA. Not in RS. So you have no say in this. Based on ur illegal recognition of Kosovos fake and illegal declaration of independence, RS has full right to separate from Bosnia. And within a legal framework. CCCC

mesic is to worried about Serb affairs will he cant do nothing and in republica srpska its 96% Serbs and 4% Muslims and Croats today, and even then it was not even close to 48% like he thinks. let the vote begin and separate and croats in Bosnia is not even 15% anymore they have dropped to about 12% because they had what about 600,000 croats in bosnia but now they say its about 499,000 and the Serbs are 1,700,000, so mesic should worry about croatia and not everyone else. and another thing for him is the waters is Slovenian and not croatian waters and istra that whole coast line was and will again be Italian lands the Italians should move in with the Serbs since all that land was populated in history Serbs and Italians and now there is barley anyone there, but Serbs are moving back and Italians should take their land back since there is NO more Yugoslavia that land was given to Yugoslavia after the war after they were defeated by the partisans which were 80%+ Serbs anyway, so realistically croatia was about Zagreb because the rest like krajina WAS and WILL be Serbian land again they have the papers to prove it, and in history it was Serbian land since they fought of the turks and the rest was Austrian and Hungarian lands croatia was zagreb.

republica srpska = separate
istra and the coast = Italy
krajina = Serbs all Serbs to return to their lands there was over 700,000 Serbs there and now 300,000 all have to return to their homes and the land of krajina

mesic = mind your own business.

RE; Mesic Comments are either misquoted or he continues to blasphemy all Yugoslav people.

Please see below, the 1991 census of the population of Bosnia & Herzegovina. The Croatia population was 17% Where is this 48% coming from? Well, he must be claiming that the the other 30% is coming from so called Muslims who were converted from Catholic Croats during the Ottoman rule. There may be some truth to it, but many Serbs of Christian Orthodox Faith were also converted to Muslims during Ottoman rule.




Municipality Total Muslims by nationality1 Serbs Croats Yugoslavs Others

TOTAL 4,377,033 (100.00%) 1,902,956 (43.47%) 1,366,104 (31.21%) 760,852 (17.38%) 242,682 (5.54%) 104,439 (2.38%)

Oh and Mesicu... How many Serbs are left in Krajina after croatians committed ethnic cleansing against them? That should answer why there are no croats in RS.

roberto

You are, as usual, not telling the truth. Bosnia muslims can go to RS without problems. Show me one case were a muslim or croat has gotten hurt in RS after the war? In Sweden I used to work with a muslim man from Banja Luka. With his family he went there on vacation every summer and never got in any trouble for being muslim. This is just one of many examples. It is just propaganda. No where else in the balkans are there so many minorities like in Serbia and on Serbian soil in Republika Srpska. Show me the number of Serbs that have returned to Krajina, muslim/croat areas in Bosnia and Kosovo? Serbs have always been and will always be the most tollerant people in the Balkans. Bosnian muslims and croats should also accept that there is no turning back for RS. It is a separate entity so deal with it.

Shame on Mesic,
If any country ever was founded on mass killings and ethnic cleansing it is current Republic of Croatia (phase 1: NDH; phase 2: Storm).

Mesic, another myopic politician that only sees his side. He is obviously the pot, calling the kettle black. What about the displaced Serbs from Croatian areas? And wasn't it the US and the EU that started the dismembering of the former Yugoslavia? Why does he not mention this? In my humble opinion, all the ethnicities in the former Yu should split, they cannot, and do not, want to live together anymore. Everyone should have their own little nationalistic country, fly their own little nationalistic flag, and put down other ethnicities in the comfort of their own little country. Maybe then, living in their own little countries, everyone in the Balkans, with NATO and russian supervision, can at long last become good neighborst?

Mesic, for a start, R.S. had about 56 percent serbs in 1991, and another 6 er so percent Yugoslavs - mostly serbs. The Bosniak and Croat totals were never that high. Second, it is true that R.S. is so much serbian - but ask yourself why. One factor is that thundreds of thousands of serbs were displaced against their will into R.S. Look at the big picture.

Why does this guy always have to mingle with someone else country, doesn't he have enough to clean in front of his door and even more inside of the house!!
As least he found to nationalist anti-serb supporters.

Mesić said that currently Bosniaks and Croats make up eight percent of the population in RS, and once made up 48 percent.
--
Basic Mathematics:

Republika Srpska Before
Muslims+Croats=48%
Serbians=52%

Federacija Before
Muslims+Croats=52%
Serbians=48%

Republika Srpska After
Muslims+Croats=8%
Serbians=92%

Federacija After
Muslims+Croats=92%
Serbians=8%
--
Now of course the percentages are estimates as there are certainly non-Serbian/Croat/Muslims in BiH but you get the jist.

This is just playing with numbers. Tomorrow Tadic can claim that Federacija once had 48% Serbians and today only has 8%. Those ethnic cleasers in Federacija are the reason why RS should separate.

Serbian haters like Roberto wouldn't have a leg to stand on based on his argument today. It's the blind finger pointers that will ended up splitting BiH. You see, personally I don't support it. The only way BiH can survive is to get over the propaganda of the past and to form some kind of union with Serbia. If the Croats in BiH don't like that they can always exchange Krajina for their part of BiH.

Once the West stops with the divide and conquer games we may actually start to make some progress.

Lol @ Mesic. Mesic will accuse Dodik, make-up some bogus secessionist activities and "prove" Dodik had a hand in them(The US and EU can help to organize).At which point, the Croatians in Bosnia will declare their independence and Croatia will annex the newly proposed state. Although China and Russia will ensure that Serbia gets the same deal. Like clock work.

Lets be clear on one thing in regards to demographics of BiH. There hasn't been a Census in that country for almost 20 years. 1992-1996 changed the demographics of that country in a huge way. Nobody can say that the muslims are a majority-where is the proof. Muslims today are not what their granparents were. Having 8-10 children just does not exist in todays BiH. Mike C mentions the return of the 300,000 Serbs to the so called Krajina region. Mike C is reluctant to mention the return of 90.000 Croats and Bosniaks to the Posavina region. Serbian views are always one way-they never look at the bigger picture. Also for the record for those that don't know about Balkan history and keep calling Croats fascists, it was the Croats that right Croats who formed the first "Partizan" unit in Sisak in 1941. The world
"USA" will never allow BiH to be divided officially.

What is your problem Mr. Mesic? You got everything you wanted. You cleansed most of serbs out of Croatia, croats and bosniaks are united as best frends and serbs are separate now. Seems to me that there is no reason to blame serbs any more, but you are so used to always blaming serbs no matter what. Serbs obviously want to run their affairs and letting you run yours so there is no more blame going around at each other. Serbs everywhere wish you the best, so why don't you do the same for serbs.

Mesic quoted in 1991 addressing the Croatian parliament, to a roudn of applause:

"My job is done Yugoslavia is no more."

Mesic was quickly promoted to presidfent of the Croatian parliament. A job he held until 1994 [strangely the pro-Bosnian Mesic quit around the time it became clear that Tudjman was ready to sign the agreement unifying Bosnian Croat and Bosnian Muslim forces, negotiations mediated by the states) -- hence Mesic quit because Tudjman under U.S. pressure decided to support a unified Bosnia.

Oh Mesic. Too bad people don't have collective amnesia.

Sorry, calculation was based on BiH and not RS so my mistake.

Actual figures are as follows:

Federacija Prewar - There were 480,000 Serbians in that region.

Federacija Postwar (2002) - only about 40,000 remain. That means 1% of Federacija are Serbians. My goodness, where did the 440,000 go? Ethnic cleansing Mr Roberto?

(Gossamer, 1 November 2009 16:08)

The game is over for your jihadist intentions of creating a Muslim national state of Bosnia(like Mustafa Ceric,the Reis Il Ulema said).
Republika Srpska is established,it is strongly guaranteed by the West(except Germans)and Serbia will go to war with Croatia or the Muslims if they try something,and this time the Americans will be on our side because they want the RS.
Just try something 10 million Serbs will gather in no time ...
As for this propaganda that RS is "ethnically cleansed" we Serbs do not need to argue over that because it is not true.
The other side is using it for a excuse for their ethnical cleansings...

Taken from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_of_Bosnia_and_Herzegovina

Federacija
1991 (Prewar)

* Bosniaks = 1,436,498 (52.1%)
* Croats = 610,458 (22.1%)
* Serbs = 485,933 (17.6%)
* others = 224,999 (8.2%)

1996 (Postwar)

* Bosniaks = 1,773,566 (72.5%)
* Croats = 556,289 (22.8%)
* Serbs = 56,618 (2.3%)
* others = 58,192 (2.4%)

That means about 600,000 Serbians + others are no longer in Federacija.

Zivela Srbija - RS is Serbian land, and it will come under the fold of Belgrade soon. Mesic can chirp as much as he wants about Bosnia, but the borders have been established, thanks to tudjman by the way, in his cleansing of Krajna. Live with your actions now, Croats.

@Gossamer

Exactly, one sentence says it all! The truth is so simple!

6) Croatia will NOT allow it

What a threat! Serbia is quivering!

You missed the part where he said "we will not allow it." Krajina was offered the Z4 plan but they didn't take it
(aRTa, 31 October 2009 22:37)

Croatia is too weak and no factor.
Only the US could do this but they support the Republika Srpska.
Even Biden,Holbrooke,Dan Fried said that the RS "will stay forever" (I quote Dan Fried).

Mesic is a Greater Croatian nationalist,he believes that Bosnia should be annexed by Croatia.
He is very prefigant and that is what makes him so dangerous,publicly he supports a unified Bosnia and attacks the RS,secretly he hopes to provoke a new war in Bosnia (of course only with the support of the whole Western world)
which should result in the expuslion of the Serbs.
Bosnia with only Muslims in it would than be a lot easier to swallow for him.
That is why he is always appealing to Bosniaks in his "we are one and the same people" attitude.
Not out of sympathy but because he hopes they would later join a Greater Croatia.
And of course the Germans support his criminal policy in the EU.
Make no mistake,Germany again is pursuing its hitlerist foreign policy of supporting Croats and Albanians against the Serbs,there is no difference between the Third reich and the Germany of today.
I must give Mesic a credit tough,he is a much more capable politician than our Tadic and Cvetkovic.
These guys have the intellect of a goat,everytime they open their mouth it is something about"We must join EU!"
If you would ask them about the waether they would answer with one of their EU platitudes while the state is meanwhile going down the tubes.

6) Croatia will NOT allow it

Serbia watchout the Croats are bring back all of their 200 troops from Afghanistan to launch an assault you.

Me thinks you see yourselves greater than you really are! Who is Croatia? Nothing but a struggling little country that relies on EU handouts otherwise it would have collapsed years ago.

If your President Mesic could bring back Yugoslavia he would trade the lot of you tomorrow for a couple of Euros. He can see that sooner or later Bosnia will split up; Serbia will take RS while the Bosniaks will take the rest because Croats are no longer an ethnic group but a minority. Mesic’s page in history say from “a rooster to a feather duster” in a decade.

aRTa

I cant stop laughing about the next sentence” Go Croatia, don't allow it, NATO is with you!” Milorad Dodik is going through the process of destroying Bosnia in front of your beloved NATO, you know the thing that surrounds Serbia. Just how is Croatia going to stop the Serbs? I know with Croatia’s military prowess, but they could only afford to send 200 troops to Afghanistan. Maybe they will withdraw the 200 and then threaten the Serbs…ha ha ha!

Apologies to the Serbian camp for over exaggerating the percentage of Serbians in Federacija. These are the undisputed results from Wikipedia.

Republika Srpska

Muslims/Croatians: 12%
Serbians: 88%

Federacija

Muslims/Croatians: 98%
Serbians: 1%

Why have my comments been deleted? This is a very interesting story to me, I believe that if Russia have accepted to play the US game of breaking up countries and recognized S.Osetia and Abhazia the Serbs should do the same recognize Kosovo and recognize every territory where they live as an independent country.

Roberto,

You badly shot yourself in the leg, with gun that Mesic loaded.

As long as I've participated in this comments forum it has day by day become more obvious that you have some some agenda than searching for facts and truth.

Let's face the truth; there is no future for the state of Bosnia. It is already obvious it can't follow others, not economically nor in the development towards European integration. I am really wondering which direction the Balkans are heading. In a few years, within EU, Serbia and Croatia will more and more represent the same issues and I think together their efforts will be much more succesfull (and much less overlooked by other states with more influence). In a few more decades, when the wars will be more or less forgotten, there will and should be new ideas about a reunification of Serbia and Croatia (incl. Bosnia and possibly Montenegro). In the past, warcrimes were not an obstacle to form one country together and I really think there will be a time to think seriously about this possibility. This Serbo-Croatia (or a new Yugolavia) of the future could be an almost monolinguistic state with just differences in religion. Strong differences maybe, but multi-religious states can be found all over the world... Don't forget about the past, but stop reconstructing it. Nothing can be changed about things that happened. Look in the future and think of how countries could benefit from eachother... That is exactly how western society's got relatively prosperous.

UNHCR Serbia page: http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e48d9f6.html

IDPs 227,879
Refugees 96,739

In 1993 and for quite a few years after, Serbia hosted close to a million refugees from Bosnia and Croatia. I'll see if I can dig up the link

Mesic, worry about the problems in your house before you go meddling in your neighbours backyard. There's an old saying, "Mind your own business."

After being confronted with facts like population statistics, the likes of Robert and Arta are not to be found... I guess they cannot handle truth.