The Deputy Chairman of the Joint Committee for Defense and Security of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, Radovan Kovačević, stated that he left the annual meeting of representatives of defense and security committees of the Southeast European parliaments alongside members of the National Assembly of Serbia’s delegation. This action was in response to a member of the Croatian Parliament discussing Kosovo and Metohija as an independent state and announcing Kosovo’s imminent membership in the Council of Europe.
Kovačević noted that, during an earlier session, representatives of Pristina were allowed to speak on defense matters, despite UN Security Council Resolution 1244 clearly stating that provisional institutions have no authority over defense issues.
The Serbian delegation expressed their protest and requested a stance from the directorate of the Regional Security Cooperation Center (RACVIAC).
“I joined Serbia’s stance and clearly emphasized to the guests from Pristina that for BiH, Kosovo and Metohija is exclusively a part of the Republic of Serbia, and I demanded that they respect this fact while being in such a country,” Kovačević stated.
Kovačević told Srna that a Croatian Parliament member apologized to the Serbian delegation, and the RACVIAC director distanced himself from the controversial statement. Following this, the Serbian delegation members and Kovačević resumed participating in the conference.
Earlier today, Srna reported that the first day of the annual meeting of defense and security committee representatives from Southeast European parliaments in Sarajevo was marked by provocations and scandals, leading to the Serbian delegation and Kovačević leaving the conference.
The walkout occurred after a member of the Croatian delegation, Zdravka Bušić, mentioned that Kosovo* would be admitted to the Council of Europe, which was a direct provocation towards the Serbia delegation.
The Serbian delegation filed a complaint, supported by Kovačević on behalf of Republika Srpska, leading to the session being interrupted and the meeting continuing on another topic.
The Croatian Parliament member who made the provocations, Zdravka Bušić, was an advisor to Franjo Tuđman during the past war. She is best known for her brother Zvonko and husband Vinko being convicted of terrorism in the US. Zvonko Bušić was convicted for hijacking a plane and killing a New York police officer, while her husband, along with five other Croatian nationalists, was convicted of murders, arson, and extortion.
As a young woman in America, she was a member of the Croatian National Resistance, an organization founded after World War II by Vjekoslav Maks Luburić, an Ustaše commander known for managing the Jasenovac camp, where mass crimes were committed against Balkan Jews, Serbs, and other opponents of the fascist regime.
Upon returning to Croatia from America, she served as a Croatian MP in the European Parliament and as State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia.
