"The government has made a political decision to remove the public monument to Mile Budak in Sveti Rok.
"It is an understandable move after all that has been said about this man in public and considering how the monument was raised. It would be bad if someone took this justified decision by the government as a pretext for the destruction of other monuments to people who are also not without guilt.
"If we were to ask that those to whom monuments were raised should be without any blemish, we would destroy most of our monuments. We should particularly beware of promoting historical memory that hampers a normal coexistence with others and those different from us," Bogovic said in his statement.
"We should all reject and condemn the statements against Serbs that are put in the mouth of Mile Budak, and we should not just pay lip service, but struggle hard to ensure that Croats and Serbs need not flee across the Sava or across the Drina (...).
"In this case there were also those who imposed the truth that was established in 1945 and 1945. They do not allow the truth that was established then to be re-examined, giving only political reasons for it and excluding ethical and moral ones. Most of them let themselves be recognised.
"There were also voices saying that that truth should be fully rejected, which is also unacceptable.
"Fortunately, there is a growing number of those who want steps to be taken towards establishing the objective truth, who want what is bad to be rejected and what is good to be saved, regardless of the side it comes from.
"It is the moral obligation of the government to support that line of thinking and create preconditions for an open discussion in this country not only about what is politically opportune but also about how things really were. In other words, the legal and historical professions should have their say over matters falling within their purview.
"Some actions by Mile Budak as a politician certainly were not correct and we all should reject them. But equally we should not say that everything he did in his life was bad and that what was done to him during his life and during the summary trial against him, as well as in the recent discussion, was correct.
"The erection of the monument to Mile Budak and its removal give us an opportunity to turn a new, more just and more truthful page in our reality," the statement concluded.