Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:08:11we are talking about general elections, constitutional
00:08:15blockades, burning problems of Mostar. Our guest is Slaven
00:08:18Bevanda, Vice President of the Croatian Republican Party, Secretary General
00:08:22of this party, and also a city councilor in the City Council of Mostar. Good day to you and welcome
00:08:25to Sarajevo Live. Good day and greetings to you and your
00:08:28viewers. Let's start with some of these state
00:08:32topics. General elections are coming up, HRS supports Zdenko
00:08:35Lučić. Do you think that the opposition
00:08:39has the capacity to replace the long-standing rule of HDZ
00:08:42of Bosnia and Herzegovina? Is it possible
00:08:45at all to replace HDZ of Bosnia and Herzegovina and
00:08:49do you think again that the problem when it comes to
00:08:51votes can be created by the candidacy of Slaven
00:08:54Kovačević? Well, look, we are in the process of political
00:08:57activity prohibition, you have to
00:09:00understand this situation, I have to remain somewhat reserved in this
00:09:03answer, for the reason that HRS is currently
00:09:07the second most penalized party by
00:09:10the Central Election Commission. This means that we are measured
00:09:13much more than others, some
00:09:17benign posts on portals that were caused
00:09:21by penalties from CIK. We are in the process of appeals both before the court
00:09:24and before the Constitutional Court. What I want to say in the context of general elections,
00:09:28it is still a, as some like to say, festival of democracy, but
00:09:32this time, this time, this time I hope that it will be the first truly
00:09:36honest elections, thanks to election technologies for which
00:09:39all of us from opposition parties fought hard
00:09:42and we expect that citizens will
00:09:46for the first time have a government that they
00:09:49elected in the elections and that their vote will represent their
00:09:52true will. So you expect that new election
00:09:56technologies will bear fruit? Well, based on the contacts we have with
00:10:00the Central Election Commission and the advertising
00:10:03campaign of CIK that starts today, we expect and hope that
00:10:07election technologies will be applied in the elections in
00:10:10October. We expect for the first time that
00:10:14we will know the election results on election night and not wait
00:10:18for months, that's what they said actually. Let's stay on
00:10:22these state topics. A lot of controversy
00:10:25arose from the renewed statements of the Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić
00:10:29Radman, he again spoke about the necessity of forming a third
00:10:33electoral unit in Bosnia and Herzegovina, saying that it
00:10:36would actually not lead to the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina, however,
00:10:40we immediately saw sharp reactions from
00:10:44Presidency member Denis Bećirović and candidate Slaven
00:10:46Kovačević, as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH Elmedin
00:10:50Konaković. How do you view this, these statements, and the responses that
00:10:54followed? Well, look, these are some, well, I'll
00:10:57give my opinion, I personally think it's high time that such
00:11:01initiatives should stop coming, specifically from
00:11:04Zagreb, regarding the introduction of elections. Personally,
00:11:08I believe that such initiatives, similar initiatives, should come from
00:11:11Sarajevo, because I think that the issue of Croatian equality can
00:11:15only be resolved by internal consensus in the Federation, and I think
00:11:19that a turning point is necessary in Bosniak politics, in majority
00:11:22Bosniak politics, and potentially
00:11:25it would represent a historical step forward in
00:11:29solving accumulated problems, stabilization of the Federation
00:11:33as a larger entity, and that would ensure the path to the European
00:11:36Union for both the Federation and all of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
00:11:39Croatia would then be very helpful to us, because it would be
00:11:43our engine for entering the European Union for accelerated accession,
00:11:47negotiations. What we are not using with these relations with Croatia
00:11:50are cross-border cooperation and other issues, that is the question of all complex
00:11:54relations that exist, but I think a turning point in Bosniak
00:11:58politics on this issue is necessary. The necessity of amending
00:12:01the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina is constantly being discussed,
00:12:06judgments that indicate this. However, representatives from both
00:12:10the Bosniak and Croatian people
00:12:13consistently discuss what should be done, but we lack
00:12:16concrete steps and actions. Why do you think they
00:12:19are absent? I think they are absent because the current policies,
00:12:23when I say current policies that have been in power for the last
00:12:2620 years, this situation suits them, because
00:12:29in that way they feed on certain
00:12:32fears, so-called fears or real fears. So
00:12:36they manipulate their electorate and we are constantly in
00:12:40a standstill. I think we have been in a complete standstill since 2006.
00:12:43Let's now turn to these local
00:12:46topics. Mostar has no local communities, and
00:12:49the Constitutional Court of the Federation of BiH in its submitted opinion stated that
00:12:53local self-government units are obliged to form local
00:12:56communities as a form of local self-government.
00:13:00What specifically changes now with this decision in Mostar? Can we
00:13:04now expect that the city must now enable
00:13:07the actual functioning of local communities? Who is responsible
00:13:11for this not having been done so far? Well, everyone in the city is
00:13:15responsible, but of course the most responsible are those who form the political majority in the city
00:13:19council and who govern the city of Mostar. So, over the past six years, certain
00:13:23initiatives have been launched since we again have a city council. Certain
00:13:27initiatives have been launched to establish local
00:13:29self-government. So we have local communities in the city
00:13:33of Mostar, but in these local communities local self-government
00:13:37is not realized, which is what the law on the principles
00:13:40of local self-government in the Federation mandates. So
00:13:43we had some small initiatives, let's say, to
00:13:46form a new network of local communities, to organize elections
00:13:50for these local communities as in other units of local self-government,
00:13:54but, uh... For all of that, we need an amendment to the statute. We have not even implemented
00:13:57the decision of the Constitutional Court, or rather, only partially implemented the decision
00:14:01of the Constitutional Court regarding Mostar, and I think that
00:14:04in the coming period, in addition to that part of this opinion
00:14:08of the Constitutional Court which directed us to
00:14:12the necessity of implementing the statute, we have another opinion in
00:14:16in also, and I think that in the coming
00:14:19period, not before these elections, but after the elections, it will be
00:14:23time to seriously sit down
00:14:25about appropriate amendments to the statute in order to harmonize it with both the Constitution of the Federation and
00:14:29the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. So how many necessary amendments
00:14:32to the statute, what all needs to be changed in the statute? Well, look, we have what
00:14:36is mandated by the Constitutional Court to implement a part
00:14:39concerning the decision-making process in the central zone, that is,
00:14:43the use of financial resources decided by councilors
00:14:46who are elected from city areas. That
00:14:49issue remained unresolved in the decision
00:14:53of the Constitutional Court, and only the issue of holding
00:14:56elections in the city of Mostar was resolved. So we have a situation where
00:15:00we must ensure changes, changes
00:15:03regarding local communities, their establishment,
00:15:06functioning, that is, ensuring local
00:15:08self-government for all citizens in the city. The second part, which concerns
00:15:12the new opinion of the Constitutional Court, means that it is an opinion, not a decision,
00:15:16and it did not overturn certain provisions of Mostar's statute, that is
00:15:19for ensuring the candidacy of others. That's what
00:15:23I wanted you to say next. of others in the city, in the city of Mostar, because
00:15:27the current statute of the city of Mostar, which we must say was imposed
00:15:31by the High Representative at the time, Paddy Ashdown, did not
00:15:34foresee the possibility for the club of others to nominate a deputy president
00:15:37and president of the city council. So, do you expect these changes to occur,
00:15:41and that this item will also be included? Well, look, we
00:15:44will, we will incorporate those changes, if we are responsible, if we have such
00:15:48an opinion from the Constitutional Court, uh, and such issues are resolved at
00:15:51certain levels of the Federation, that is, in elections, in the election
00:15:55of, for example, the leadership of the House of Peoples and
00:15:58the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation. So
00:16:02there are models that we can use to solve it, I see no reason why we wouldn't approach
00:16:05that solution. So we, from HRS, have complete political will to resolve
00:16:09all these issues. You said,
00:16:12then, it is resolved when it comes to elections in the city of Mostar itself,
00:16:16but does the current statute of the city pose an obstacle
00:16:20to the normal functioning of Mostar? How would the statute
00:16:23that you and HRS would propose look like? Well, look,
00:16:27there is that statute, as I said before, it was imposed by
00:16:31the administration, that is, the High Representative.
00:16:34He abolished the previous six municipalities and the city structure
00:16:37that existed previously and replaced it with a single city administration.
00:16:41We then received from the same statute a unitary
00:16:45organization of the city, we have five departments in the city.
00:16:48Opinions are emerging that we should reorganize the city
00:16:52administration. We believe that we should,
00:16:54uh, regulate a number of issues
00:16:58regarding the method of appointment,
00:17:01hiring people, that is, fulfilling constitutional responsibilities, that is,
00:17:05everything that should be
00:17:09is something that necessarily requires at all times amendments to
00:17:12legislation at higher levels, and we have
00:17:15an obligation to harmonize with them, but we first need to adopt this
00:17:18statute that was imposed by the High Representative, meaning
00:17:22then to change it, meaning it is still, let's say,
00:17:25on a temporary basis for us. What about the eventual return
00:17:29of city municipalities, are you in favor of that? Well, look, there is
00:17:33a proposal, meaning we always have some emissaries, in this case it was
00:17:36Mr. Efendić, who came to Sarajevo, concerned about, allegedly, the status
00:17:40of Bosniaks in the city of Mostar, and he proposed the return, the return
00:17:44of city municipalities, that is, returning to the situation before 2004.
00:17:47So we have situations in cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
00:17:51such as Sarajevo, specifically Sarajevo, which has a regulated issue, it has city
00:17:54municipalities, it has a city, it has a city as an institution with very
00:17:58limited powers, uh, in principle, if we are all in the majority for
00:18:02that, although it is a good model, I would be able to discuss it to see what the
00:18:06competencies would be. From HRS, we would discuss how it was, but it would be
00:18:09necessary to apply that model then, if it is good for Mostar, I see no reason
00:18:13why we wouldn't apply it to other municipalities in the Federation, for example,
00:18:17Travnik or something similar. One of
00:18:20the actually bigger problems are public enterprises
00:18:23in the city of Mostar. Recently, the most current issues
00:18:26are the Uborak landfill and the public utility company. You
00:18:30spoke of serious suspicions regarding the operation and management
00:18:33of the public utility company. Are there specific evidences, and do you actually expect
00:18:37an investigation to occur regarding the operation and management of the public
00:18:41utility company Komunalno in Mostar? Well, look, in the city of Mostar,
00:18:45in the city of Mostar, we have foreseen in that statute
00:18:49an internal oversight service, which until half a year ago
00:18:53was unfilled for six or seven years. One of the competencies
00:18:57of that internal oversight service was to supervise the work of those public
00:19:00enterprises. What we are
00:19:04witnessing is that these public enterprises...
00:19:07uh, these public enterprises in the city of Mostar, specifically, we had a fire at
00:19:11the Uborak landfill, where, according to initial estimates, the
00:19:15damages were 20 million marks. We are talking about material damages. The damages
00:19:18to the health of citizens caused by that incident are
00:19:22unfortunately immeasurable; they will be seen in the
00:19:25future. We currently have an unresolved situation with that
00:19:28company. In the public utility company, we have big
00:19:31problems, big problems with the way that company is operated and managed. We are witnessing that
00:19:34numerous criminal complaints have been filed these past few days due to
00:19:38abuses in this company. At the last
00:19:41council session, we witnessed that certain council members accused
00:19:44each other of using funds and
00:19:48funds, or rather, equipment, or equipment, or
00:19:51machines of that company, to pave the driveways,
00:19:54courtyards of certain council members or political
00:19:57officials. This is something that
00:20:01would, this is something that in a normal country after such a
00:20:04council session where a council member is concerned.
00:20:15that something was paved with city funds or a benefit was made,
00:20:18but we still have no information about investigations.
00:20:22It's not that long ago that criminal charges were filed. What we are waiting
00:20:25for is an investigation into the fire at the
00:20:28Uborak landfill, because there were, there have been well-founded
00:20:32suspicions from the beginning that the fire was arson.
00:20:36And without without
00:20:39a full investigation, it's difficult to draw any conclusions. If it was
00:20:43arson and if it was, listen, it was an attack on the citizens
00:20:47of Mostar, that's the least of it. The least of it
00:20:50is the value of destroyed property, which is the value and costs that are now
00:20:54arising in the city of Mostar in terms of organizing
00:20:57the disposal of that waste. Yes, we will talk about that too, but let's just
00:21:01briefly touch upon the management and operation of the
00:21:04public utility company itself. You said
00:21:08that there are two public utilities under the same roof. Are public enterprises
00:21:11in Mostar divided along national and political
00:21:15lines? Who is doing this, why, and how long would it actually
00:21:18take to start the recovery of the system, how long would that
00:21:22take, primarily to uncover all possible
00:21:25malversations, frauds, divisions, and only then
00:21:28to actually recover everything and establish it as it should be? Well, look,
00:21:32it is obvious that these our enterprises did not function in accordance
00:21:36with the law, that is, the law on public enterprises and the law on commercial
00:21:40companies, which they are obliged to
00:21:43apply. We are therefore witnesses that the managements of those enterprises that were
00:21:47appointed had a sharp division of competencies
00:21:50regarding, to be completely honest, the implementation of activities
00:21:54of those enterprises in certain urban areas, both with a Croatian
00:21:57and with a Bosniak majority. So we don't need to hide that, it's clear to everyone.
00:22:01We have a situation where in certain enterprises,
00:22:05I call them work units, work units one and two,
00:22:08were formed, which were essentially created from former separate
00:22:11enterprises during the unification of enterprises, so that citizens and those enterprises
00:22:15still haven't fully functioned. They haven't
00:22:19fully functioned, been in that
00:22:22common, common form. So
00:22:25because of that, we have chaos in that management. We have been
00:22:28witnesses for several years of citizens' complaints, public announcements
00:22:32that the assets, specifically the machines, excavators, backhoes
00:22:36of those public enterprises, not only outside working hours,
00:22:39are found in private, are found in the area, are found in
00:22:43the area of other municipalities, people have recorded them, published them, so huge
00:22:46abuses exist. Huge suspicion of
00:22:50abuses, we will see what will be the
00:22:53subject of these investigations. Will the prosecution, I see no
00:22:56reason for delay there, these are not cases in which
00:23:00huge investigative actions need to be carried out.
00:23:03And what is necessary in all those
00:23:07enterprises is to conduct an independent audit of operations, if
00:23:11possible. We advocate for an international audit, we know that
00:23:14it costs a lot, but I think a cut-off needs to be made.
00:23:18How do you then view
00:23:20these latest dismissals that we witnessed in the
00:23:23utility company? Are these dismissals of workers
00:23:26a consequence of economic and organizational problems that
00:23:30certainly exist, or precisely political and national relations
00:23:33within the company? We now see workers
00:23:37talking about the pressures that they endured. How do you view
00:23:41this whole situation now? Well, look, we were, we had a city council
00:23:44session, where no one wanted to publish that alleged petition,
00:23:48let's say, of workers who refuse to work
00:23:50from allegedly work unit two, but they stop working in
00:23:54the area of work unit one or conversely, to be clear, in
00:23:58areas where mostly Croats live, or in areas where mostly Bosniaks
00:24:01live, we have workers who refused
00:24:05to work, allegedly, I repeat, in that part, to perform
00:24:08their tasks,
00:24:11which they are obliged to do throughout the entire city, and they
00:24:15have the right to choose where they will work, which is impossible. This
00:24:19shows... the multi-layered nature of the work in managing that
00:24:22company. So, these companies were not united in a
00:24:26proper way. When uniting
00:24:30uh, we warned that perhaps it wasn't
00:24:32the best way. The formation of a holding company was proposed, so that it would be clear
00:24:36in one holding company there would be several companies: a landfill,
00:24:40sanitation, waste collection, and execution of works, to be
00:24:44controlled through a joint holding company. There were several proposals, unfortunately it seems
00:24:48the worst one was chosen, and today it... does not function. It is obvious that in this entire
00:24:52process there was manipulation of workers, mhm,
00:24:55absolute manipulation. Some people stated that they didn't know what they
00:24:58had signed within the framework of that petition. You didn't even
00:25:02see the petition on the..., we saw one letter, but
00:25:06I personally did not see a signed petition, it was not presented.
00:25:09Similarly, we did not see any decision on the termination
00:25:13of the employment contract, for what reason one of the workers
00:25:15was given that termination. Well, specifically, I am a lawyer and it is
00:25:19impossible to assess whether that decision, let's say, at least for formal
00:25:23legal reasons, is lawful or not. But it is very
00:25:26evident now that the supervisory board, as
00:25:29a second-instance body, is resolving the appeals of those
00:25:32workers, i.e., requests for reconsideration of those decisions, and
00:25:36I, as I heard from the media, that some decisions were even
00:25:39adopted. But now, what can the city
00:25:42council do, what can you order the public
00:25:46company to do? Can it, can we perhaps
00:25:49expect, well, an audit,
00:25:52some re-establishment of a different kind, a different
00:25:56way of working in the utility company? Well, what
00:26:00we are witnessing, it means that these public companies, which we have, not only in the city
00:26:03of Mostar, but at higher levels or in other cities, are in huge problems,
00:26:07mhm, we are witnesses that perhaps some companies that entered into
00:26:11public-private partnerships with private companies in some municipalities have far fewer
00:26:15problems, perhaps it costs a little more somewhere,
00:26:19perhaps it looks a little different, but it is obvious that we need new relationships in
00:26:23terms of the
00:26:25regulation of these issues, but what is worrying is that all these
00:26:29companies operate, they have poor business
00:26:33results. So not just in the city of Mostar, look,
00:26:37look at the federal level, the list of tax debtors, and you will
00:26:41see at the federal administration, the federal tax administration or
00:26:44the indirect taxation administration, which are the utility companies, the biggest
00:26:48debtors. This means that contributions are not paid, that
00:26:52VAT is not paid. At the same time, these companies, unlike private companies,
00:26:56are not blocked by the tax
00:26:58administration. So chaos
00:27:02"will have to be resolved. Uh, we are witnesses that in some other
00:27:06municipalities there were bankruptcies of utility companies, the establishment
00:27:09of new ones. I don't know what the future of the city of Mostar is. We have a difficult
00:27:13situation at the landfill that burned down. We currently
00:27:17have workers who worked on disposal, storage,
00:27:19sorting of that waste that came there, I think there are about
00:27:2355 workers, uh,
00:27:26they are in a very difficult situation, all this concern
00:27:30for these dismissals made me in a way..." prompted me to wonder how no one
00:27:33cares about these 55 people who did these jobs, whose future
00:27:37is uncertain. We hope that these people will integrate into other
00:27:40other city utility
00:27:43companies, that they will remain at that landfill for the maintenance
00:27:46and disposal,
00:27:49and the implementation of the adaptation plan for that landfill. That is all
00:27:53that awaits us in the coming period, where we have a very
00:27:56difficult situation, and there is a lot of
00:28:00communal issues and that problem with waste
00:28:02disposal. Can the citizens of Mostar and
00:28:06this entire region actually be told when Uborak will cease to be
00:28:09a city landfill and where Mostar will dispose of
00:28:13waste after that? Has an alternative been found, is
00:28:16there talk about it? There were many ideas years
00:28:19ago, but is there a final decision?
00:28:23There is no decision, meaning that we do not even have a new location for a
00:28:27regional landfill in the spatial plan of our canton. So what
00:28:30the city of Mostar landfill Uborak must implement in the
00:28:34area of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, it means what
00:28:37the city of Mostar, the Uborak landfill, must implement in the
00:28:41area of the Uborak landfill, is the implementation of the adaptation plan adopted by the Federal
00:28:44Ministry for Environmental Protection. This implies that for the next five years
00:28:48that landfill will be remediated
00:28:51according to regulations, that all
00:28:55hazardous materials found there will be separated, that it will be greened,
00:28:58and that simply in the future it will not pose a danger to
00:29:04waste has been deposited at that landfill for 60 years, that before the war, anyone who lived in Mostar before the war
00:29:08knows that that landfill
00:29:11burned very badly before the war, but it is a chaos, simply
00:29:15a chaos that we must, must, must resolve. Will we be able to
00:29:19resolve it without European partners? I don't know, and
00:29:22there is constant talk about that problem, but somehow no
00:29:25solution is found. How do you look at that? Well,
00:29:29look, Mostar is not alone in that problem, there are many other
00:29:32cities, there are some small municipalities or smaller municipalities, local
00:29:36self-government units that have solved it by having illegal landfills, and no one
00:29:40mentions them. The city of Mostar had a sanitary landfill that was newly
00:29:43opened after the European Union, I think it was perhaps not even well
00:29:47managed. That is, that is another problem, meaning that
00:29:50if all legal regulations had been applied, that landfill would not
00:29:53look like this today, and this horror that happened with this
00:29:57fire is simply something
00:30:00impossible that of course no one expected. Was this a breakdown or was it
00:30:04caused, as I said, the investigation will determine whether it was
00:30:08caused intentionally? Do you have any information on what stage the
00:30:11investigation is in? I really don't, because look, the prosecution will not provide any
00:30:15information, it retains the right for protection, not only
00:30:19in this but also in all other cases. But here, we say that
00:30:22appropriate expert assessments need to be carried out, probably a large
00:30:25number of people, workers, landfill workers, a large number
00:30:28of firefighters who told us, let's say
00:30:32internally, when we went to thank those people for all
00:30:36they did, because they were exposed to a terrible
00:30:39danger when they were extinguishing that
00:30:42landfill. They, because the landfill did not only have one fire, it had
00:30:46new fires on the second and third day, they expressed
00:30:49suspicion, based on their professional experience, that it was
00:30:52arson. Now when we talk about public
00:30:56enterprises of the city of Mostar, are they today...