Dear President of the Coordination Board of the Organisations of the Veterans – Mr. Kulosman,

Brothers and sisters,

Ladies and gentlemen,

As-salam-o-alaikum and Good Day to you!

At this very place, exactly 20 years ago, 356 of the most eminent Yugoslav Muslims, i.e. Bosniaks, gathered here in order to determine the position of our people and our country of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the years of harsh historical development that was obviously going to happen.  It certainly was one of the most important gatherings of our people in a thousand year long history of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  Very brave and long-sighted Decisions were brought; decisions that would determine the fundamental directions and guidance of the military and political fight of the Bosniaks in the decades ahead, including the time of today.

I will state only some of the positions of the Proclamation which was adopted on that historical day in Sarajevo:

- Bosnia and Herzegovina is the homeland to Muslims, Serbs and Croats, and all citizens who live in it.  Its undividableness it granted to itself through Centuries of the live together.... For this reason, we call for all Muslims, all Serbs, and all Croats, and all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to defend their homeland.

- We opt for Bosnia and Herzegovina as a civil republic in which the freedoms and rights of a human and a citizen will be respected, national rights of peoples and minorities will be respected, and in which an economic and political democracy will rule.  This is the long-lasting determination of the Muslim people.

- We call for the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina to decisively oppose every politics and actions which undermine and question equality and integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and equal rights of all of its peoples and citizens.

-  Convinced in the lasting values of democracy and democratic institutions, we express our readiness to lead a dialogue on all questions of joint life in a democratic and civil Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

-  We believe in the need and future of integrations in Yugoslav and European region.  This is the reason why the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina should permanently be opened towards Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro and beyond, across them towards Europe.  For the openness of the borders towards all we have one condition only – friendly intentions.

The most concrete part of the Proclamation was the Paragraph 6, which states that, due to „the politics of national hegemony and great-statehood as well as the challenges which threaten the survival of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and by that a direct survival of the Muslim people“, the Council for National Defence was founded, as a new body of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA).

The Council was soon to develop into the Patriotic League, and the Patriotic League would in an incredibly short period of time create conditions for strengthening the army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a military force which the history of war and military warfare will certainly remember.  For, the creation, strengthening and the military results of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, must be interesting to the analysts, since they simply resist the rational analysis.  The fight of the BiH patriots surely deserves, at a first sight, pretentious title of – A miracle of Bosnian resistance!  For, let us remember – in 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina was an occupied country.  The Yugoslav National Army units were withdrawn into it along with a massive military technique and over a 100,000 soldiers, i.e. the warriors who had tasted the fights in Croatia.  Only in Sarajevo, there were 17 barracks, and the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) had created well equipped para-military formations across Bosnia and Herzegovina. We had practically moved from ground zero, from an occupied state to disarmed Territorial Defence.

Tuđman and Milošević had planned for Bosnia to fall silently (whispery). For it to be divided the way Cvetković and Maček did it, counting for no Muslims to be in it, and that we are only a passive object of division.  They were gravely mistaken, they brought themselves, and us too, into one of the bloodiest wars on the Balkans.  Tuđman let go of the aggression and great-state plan first, in 1993, and accepted the Washington Treaty.  In 1994, the military balance was created despite the full encirclement and lack of communications and supply routes of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite the insidious weapons embargo which affected defenders only.  Yet the Army, cut off from the rest of the world, strengths and starts to prevail!  In 1995, our Army did not lose a single battle – it liberates towns, communications, mountains, and the glorious white banner with golden lilies waving on the freed summit of mountain Vlašić.

The victorious campaign was stopped in the autumn of 1995 under the threat of NATO strikes.  The creators of the embargo did not want a military victor, they took away from us the military victory, yet the moral one, nobody can take from us, nor can anyone question it.  The soldiers of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, mostly members of the Bosniak people, who went through unprecedented horror, prosecution, concentration camps, genocide – those soldiers did not take revenge.  They led a knightly and honourable flight, which, to our people and our country brought a good reputation and respect throughout the world.  Both, amongst friendly peoples and those who are not.

Our fight is a founding stone for the future of generations to come. Yes, you see, there are philosophers who claim that the glorious resistance took place spontaneously, by itself.  People, allegedly armed and formed resistance by themselves?!  I am very sorry to, at this honourable place and on this honourable day, use this word to describe such claims – thus, deliberate, malicious lie and stupidity!

A soccer tournament for the elementary school pupils cannot be formed without any kind of organisation, not to speak about defending the country and people from a well coordinated aggression of immeasurably superior neighbours who were ready to commit the worst crimes!  Some of our wise heads did not want to look the truth in the eye, but the Head of the Counter Intelligence Service, Aco Vasiljević, did and who objected to late Alija Izetbegović that SDA was arming the people, but he said:  „... We are not concerned about it.  The weapons themselves do not mean much.  We are concerned that you are creating an organisation...“

Yes.  The defence of Bosnia and Herzegovina was organised by the Party of Democratic Action, more precisely, its democratic wing – the Patriotic League.  The leaders of people, and later military leaders, starting from a commander of the General Quarters downwards, were the eminent members of the Patriotic League!

There are peoples who cherish the memories of their defeats, the battles lost, they cherish and remember them for hundreds of years, trying to make them their victories.  With us, sometimes it is in reverse.  Our people are good, brave, yet tending to forget.  We forget our victories, the men who won those victories, prepared and made it possible.  Meša Selimović says that we are the people who are not easily scared but that the Bosniaks are, after the historical efforts, prone to become, as he says, „sleepers“.

We mustn't ever again become sleepers!  Awakening certainly shall be painful!  If in 1991 we had to work illegally, hide and destroy our own traces, we mustn't do the same in 2011.  We mustn't forget, we have to remember and record our own history, or someone else will do it for us. Mostly, not good-willed ones.  In that history, the names of those who had a vision, courage and ability to organise resistance, should be engraved in gold letters.  To stop the terrifying military machinery which was coming from all sides, to break its cogwheels and wheels.

May Allah rahmet and peace is upon all those who laid their lives in that unequal fight. We, who stayed alive, owe them and their associates.

We owe them gratitude, respect and memory.

They say that the war is continuance of politics by other means.  In the post war Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was the other way around – those who do not love our country, and whom we were forced to share the first post war governments, viewed the politics as the war continued by other means.  Bosnia and Herzegovina did not move from ground zero in 1996.  It moved from the minus, from below zero.  The burnt villages, destroyed cities, wounded nation, halted economy, yet the hardest and the most difficult problems were the constant obstructions that make our political fight a marathon race run with two lead balls attached to the legs. 

Yet, we are fit people, strong. And wise too.  Political goals which are set properly get a stronger or weaker, yet constant support from the International Community and our energy and creativity are overpowering those who are stalling the progress.  In the past fifteen years out of three armies we have created one, out of three border services, we have created one, out of three Intelligence Agencies, we have created one.  We have established over 60 institutions at the state level.  The processes are moving slowly, but are moving in the right direction, in the direction that we have paved. 

This is why I call for all the patriots for a new enthusiasm, new energy and faith. We need more self-confidence, mutual trust and respect.  Agreement and patience.  More of the solidarity.  Annex VII which Mr. Avdo Hebib had already spoken about, if necessary, will be implemented by us alone.  Federation must assist the return of Bosniaks and Croats to RS, here is the engine and the power of the state.  An enormous job has been done.  Longer, harder and steeper half of the way is behind us.  We will prevail, with God's help. We will preserve the unity of the country and build a safe and prosperous society in which every honest man on every single inch of this beautiful country, will feel free and secure.

We will realise the visionary determination set in the Proclamation adopted here, 20 years ago. 

The fight we will, with God's blessings, bring to an end by political means.  Like in chess, this time, with white figures.

Those are our determinations and plans.  Some others perhaps may have different plans, less peaceful.  Those plans shall remain but a wish.  For, the defenders are still in power, and twenty years is just enough for their sons to grow up.  Made out of same material, with the same hearts and determinations.

President Hebib, president Kulosman, dear members of the Patriotic League, the patriots of Bosnia and Herzegovina, I congratulate you your Jubilee – twenty years of courage and decisiveness, twenty years of the Patriotic League!

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