SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina: Bosnian officials and religious leaders on Wednesday denounced suggestions voiced by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his spokesman that the integration of Bosnia into the European Union will be challenging because of its large Muslim population.
Orban’s spokesman Zoltan Kovacs has tweeted that “the challenge with Bosnia is how to integrate a country with 2 million Muslims.”
During his long speech on Tuesday in Budapest, right-wing populist Orban said Hungary supports Bosnia’s EU bid, adding that as an EU member, Hungary had to mobilize a lot of energy to overcome “the enlargement fatigue that has taken hold of the European Union.”
“I am doing my best to convince Europe’s great leaders that the Balkans may be further away from them than from Hungary, but how we manage the security of a state in which 2 million Muslims live is a key issue for their security too.”
Reaction in Bosnia was sharp, with some Bosniak parties asking for a ban on Orban’s planned official visit to Sarajevo and the head of the Islamic community, Grand Mufti Husein Kavazovic, calling his statement “xenophobic and racist.”
“If such ideologies become the basis on which the policies of a united Europe are based, then it takes us back to the times when the European unity was to be build on similar fascist, Nazi, violent and genocidal ideologies that led to the Holocaust and other horrific crimes,” he said in a statement.
The Bosniak member of the country’s tripartite presidency, Sefik Dzaferovic, called Orban’s statement “shameful and rude.”
“It is not a challenge for the EU to integrate 2 million (Bosnian) Muslims, because we are an indigenous European people who have always lived here and we are Europeans,” he said.
Bosnia, which is made up of Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats, is going through its gravest political crisis since the end of the civil war in the 1990s. With tacit support from Russia and Serbia, Bosnian Serbs are threatening to form their own army, judiciary and tax authority, reviving fears of another bloody breakup of the Balkan country.
During his speech on Tuesday, Orban also said Hungary wouldn’t support EU sanctions against Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik as threatened by Germany and some other member states because of his separatist stands.
“Sarajevo has lost its nerve, it is attacking everyone — Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, now Hungary. Not to mention Russia,” Dodik said Wednesday, referring to support he has allegedly received from those countries.
Orban has been known for his anti-migration policies, claiming Muslim migrants are the greatest threat to Europe’s Christian values. He has also been supporting quick accession of Serbia into the EU despite the increasingly autocratic policies of his ally, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
More than 100,000 people were killed and millions were left homeless during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia when Bosnian Serbs tried to create ethnically pure territories in order to join them with neighboring Serbia.
Hungary’s PM denounced in Bosnia for anti-Muslim rhetoric
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Hungary’s PM denounced in Bosnia for anti-Muslim rhetoric
- Viktor Orban has said the integration of Bosnia into the EU will be challenging because of its large Muslim population
US accuses South Africa of harassing US officials working with Afrikaners
- The State Department alleged that Americans had also been briefly held in the raid, which it said the United States “condemns in the strongest terms.”
WASHINGTON: Washington on Thursday accused South Africa of harassing US government employees working with Afrikaners, the white minority to whom President Donald Trump is granting refugee status, in the latest escalation of tensions.
The State Department said that passport information of US officials was leaked and warned in a statement that “failure by the South African government to hold those responsible accountable will result in severe consequences.”
South Africa replied that the allegation was unsubstantiated and rejected “any suggestion of state involvement in such actions.”
The accusations came after South Africa arrested and expelled Wednesday seven Kenyans brought in by the US government to assist in processing Afrikaners seeking to move to the United States.
President Donald Trump’s administration has claimed Afrikaners are victims of discrimination and even “genocide,” which the Pretoria government strongly denies.
South Africa said the Kenyans arrested at a processing center on Tuesday were on tourist visas that did not allow them to work — the type of violation seized on by Trump as he carries out mass deportations from the United States.
The State Department alleged that Americans had also been briefly held in the raid, which it said the United States “condemns in the strongest terms.”
It added that officials’ passport information had been made public.
So-called doxxing, or revealing personal information, “is an unacceptable form of harassment” and puts people in harm’s way, the State Department said.
It did not immediately provide further details on the purported incident.
‘Seeking clarity’
South Africa “noted an unsubstantiated allegation regarding the private information” and was seeking clarity from Washington, the foreign ministry in Pretoria said later.
“We categorically reject any suggestion of state involvement in such actions,” it said in a statement.
The government has already said no US officials were arrested in Tuesday’s raid, which was not carried out at a diplomatic site.
The seven Kenyan nationals who were expelled had violated South African law by working without the correct permits, the foreign ministry repeated.
“The government will not negotiate its sovereignty and the implementation of the rule of law,” it said.
Trump has repeatedly attacked South Africa’s post-apartheid government over what he calls persecution of the Afrikaners, an allegation that had gained ground online with the far-right.
He has been increasingly open on his desire to rid the United States of immigrants other than white Europeans and all but ended the once-generous US refugee resettlement program, which now only accepts Afrikaners among all the world’s people.
The State Department in a separate statement Thursday confirmed it did not invite South Africa to an initial meeting on planning next year’s Group of 20 summit, the first time a member of the bloc is being excluded.
