prijava
SARAJEVO, October 19 (FENA) - The 19th anniversary of the death of Alija Izetbegović, the first president of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was marked today at the Kovači Cemetery in Sarajevo by laying flowers and reciting the prayers.
Flowers were laid by numerous delegations from the state, FBiH and lower levels of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina, representatives of the diplomatic corps, veterans' associations, members of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and others.
The Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Šefik Džaferović, said on this occasion that "the name of Alija Izetbegović evokes an inexhaustible number of topics because he was a peculiar personality and one of the most significant people in the history of this country. Certainly the most significant figure in the recent history of Bosnia and Herzegovina".
"Alija Izetbegović was a president, thinker, writer, humanist, and lawyer. However, one word best summarizes the impressions we all felt of the personality of the late president. Alija Izetbegović was a statesman. In the true sense of the word," said Džaferović, among other things.
Izetbegović, as Džaferović said, truly believed that Bosnia and Herzegovina belonged to all its peoples.
"He knew that Bosniaks, due to their historical destiny, are tied to the destiny of Bosnia and Herzegovina by an umbilical cord. But he never, I repeat, he never denied Serbs and Croats the right to feel Bosnia and Herzegovina as their own.
He fought so that no one would feel uncomfortable in this country and in their own skin. Convinced that different peoples can and should live together, he fought for different opinions to be confronted in public. He was a staunch democrat to the end.
He said that the true meaning of the law was to protect those who are weaker. He said that freedom of thought is primarily the freedom to think differently. And then a paradox happened. He who fought for coexistence was accused of doing the opposite. He who fought for the freedom of thought was accused of doing the opposite. He was convicted twice, for his words and thoughts," reminded Džaferović, emphasizing that when Alija Izetbegović came to power, there was no revenge, as even some of his interrogators testified.
He recalled Izetbegović's words that "the solution to all our problems is a united and democratic Bosnia and Herzegovina". "A united country" - means to reduce ethnic divisions, and "democratic" - means to develop the sharing of opinions within each of the people, instead of just within one people itself.
(FENA) S. R.
