LOCAL PRESS

Vulin: Essentially, UNMIK is violating CEFTA agreement (Tanjug)

UNMIK is essentially violating the CEFTA agreement, since they signed it and are responsible for its implementation. Why UNMIK is not respecting its own signature is something we will need an answer to, Serbian Labor Minister Aleksandar Vulin said. He says that UNMIK is the highest authority in Kosovo and Metohija according to Resolution 1244, and that now the question is why UNMIK is allowing this. “UNMIK administration signed the CEFTA agreement…Brussels is certainly the address where we need to look for a solution over the political influence it has, over guarantees that is has undertaken with the signing of the Brussels agreement and over the very bad message that is sent to the authorities, especially those in Belgrade, where it is constantly repeated that our agreement can be violated without punishment,” said Vulin.

Urgent meeting in Vienna on ADR certificates (RTS/FoNet)

At the EU invitation, Kosovo Minister without Portfolio Edita Tahiri has departed for Vienna for an urgent meeting with Serbian representatives in regard to mutual recognition of certificates for transporting hazardous material, known as the ADR, the Pristina media report. The Kosovo authorities have announced that this has been discussed in Brussels for seven months at Tahiri’s insisting, but that Belgrade hasn’t shown readiness to reach through dialogue mutual recognition of ADR certificates. Tahiri informed the EU that Belgrade’s behavior is in contradiction of European principles, because of which an urgent meeting was organized, reads the Kosovo government statement. The Office for Kosovo and Metohija has announced that at issue is a topic that is still the subject of expert talks in Brussels.

Dacic: We are prepared for dialogue, but not for blackmail from Croatia (Radio Belgrade)

On the occasion of the statement made by Croatian Foreign Minister Miro Kovac that Croatia could block the opening of Chapter 23 in Serbia’s negotiations with the EU, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic says that relations with Serbia are used in Croatia for the internal political struggle. “Several years ago, Croatia wished to voice its stand and it did so. This is the document of the Sabor that bilateral relations and topics will not threaten its relations with Serbia and that it will not slow down Serbia’s EU integration. However, relations with Serbia are obviously used in Croatia as an easy mechanism for internal political struggle and such messages from Croatia certainly do not contribute to progress in relations with our neighbors,” Dacic told Radio Belgrade. “We are prepared to resolve problems through dialogue, but we are not prepared for any kind of blackmail from Croatia, especially having in mind that Croatia is far from being in a situation to lecture Serbia on the position of national minorities in Serbia, having in mind everything that the Serbs had experienced in Croatia over the past 10-20 years, not to mention World War II. All in all, these are meaningless threats from Croatia, and I am sure that they will not have the support of any EU member state,” said Dacic.

Dacic: Instead of reconciling, ICTY generating instability (RTS)

Speaking for Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS), Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has reiterated that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had conveyed during a joint meeting that Russia thinks that the ICTY needs to be closed down as soon as possible since it hasn’t behaved as a court. “Official Belgrade shares Moscow’s stand. Instead of the ICTY working on the reconciliation process and punishment of those who committed crimes, which is why it was established, it was a generator of instability and destabilization of the region” said Dacic. He pointed to the fact that it scheduled in the midst of an election campaign in Serbia the delivering of the verdict to the former RS President Radovan Karadzic and the SRS leader Vojislav Seselj.

He recalled that Ramush Haradinaj, Ante Gotovina have been acquitted, and Mujahedins have been completely neglected even though they fought on the side of the Muslims, especially today when this is ongoing. “Lavrov said that he would request to launch this issue. We can’t do this, but Russia as the Security Council member can,” said Dacic. “One may expect that some new turns will follow in the further proceedings. I don’t think this was benevolence towards Seselj, but moves that contribute to destabilization of Serbia and the entire region,” said Dacic.

When it comes to NATO-Belgrade relations, Dacic says that Russian officials inquired about whether Serbia is changing its stance on NATO, that it has no ambition of becoming NATO member.

Djordjevic: Serbia will not be a refugee reception center (Beta)

Serbian Defense Minister Zoran Djordjevic has said that Serbia will continue to harmonize its actions with the EU and the states along the migrant route, but will not allow itself to turn into a reception center for refugees who cannot reach Western Europe after the borders were closed.

Speaking in Vienna at an expanded meeting of defense ministers of the Central European Defense Initiative, Djordjevic underscored that the ongoing migrant crisis had shown that a region’s security could not be viewed separately from the rest of the world, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. The minister also stressed that the only right and effective solution was the stabilization of crisis areas, into which more effort should be invested, so as to achieve long-term solutions and create conditions for the return of refugees and migrants.

Ugljanin seeks United Nations intervention; Dacic: Nonsense (Novosti)

The Chairperson of the Bosniak National Council (BNV) Sulejman Ugljanin has sent a request to the United Nations Security Council to urgently and without delay send international forces to Sandzak to prevent conflict and undertake other measures for protecting the Bosniak nation in this part of Serbia, Novosti writes. The decision to invite UN forces was made under cover of night, on Saturday evening, and it was taken during an extraordinary session of the BNV, considering that 17 councilors from the “For Bosniaks, Sandzak, and the Mufti” list did not attend. They claim they were not consulted about the items on the agenda. According to a statement issued by the BNV, agreed on by Ugljanin’s remaining 18 councilors, “the entire international community is urged to establish a special mission in order to prevent conflicts and stop the further intimidation and threats against Bosniaks, but also preventively stop a new wave of state terror, crimes and ethnic cleansing in Sandzak”. Minister Dacic tells Novosti that this request is nonsense and that nobody in the world will react: “Peace and stability in Serbia are not threatened. This is an obvious and big provocation aimed at causing the country’s destabilization.” Ugljanin’s requests are nothing new for Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Rasim Ljajic as well and he thinks that the Serbian government should not react to them. The BNV requests again the Serbian government to abolish the adopted Action Plan for minorities and to adopt a new one that will include all, as they say, ignored BNV requests. The Head of the Office for Minority Rights Suzana Paunovic has stated that “Ugljanin lives in a conspiracy theory, known only to him”, that he is “creating from BNV a branch office of his SDA party” and that “all national councils have been working on de-politization, and that this process is reverse only with Ugljanin and the BNV”. The Serbian government, stresses Paunovic, adopted the Action Plan following the process where all national councils, NGOs and interested embassies took part. The BNV representatives took part in its drafting as well, “until Ugljanin estimated that departure from this working group and such rhetoric would bring him votes at the elections”. Paunovic requests from Ugljanin to read carefully what the BNV jurisdictions are. She asked him how he was spending 1.2 million Euros, the sum that the BNV receives from the Serbian budget.

Omerovic condemns Ugljanin’s request to Security Council (Tanjug)

The Chairperson of the Serbian parliamentary Committee for Human and Minority Rights Meho Omerovic strongly condemned the request of the BNV Chairperson Sulejman Ugljanin sent to the United Nations Security Council. “Ugljanin harshly abuses the BNV, places it in the function of his sick wish to preserve some of his authority, at the cost of sowing fear. This insane invitation is only confirmation that this man has lost every contact with reality. The rhetoric of depicting the situation in Sandzak as a place where terror, repression and assimilation reign is seriously sick, but also very dangerous,” said Omerovic. “If we need to protect the Bosniaks from somebody then it is precisely from Ugljanin. He is disgracing the BNV institution, uses it for the lowest and host horrible spreading of lies, fear, disturbance of all citizens,” said Omerovic.

Miscevic: United Nations goes where there are conflicts (TV Pink)

One should view Sulejman Ugljanin’s requests in the context of the election campaign, the Head of the Serbian negotiating team with the EU Tanja Miscevic says. “United Nations peacekeeping forces are deployed where there are conflicts. What conflicts does he have in mind? At issue is something that we, who are engaged in the work of the negotiations, already had an opportunity to see the discontent of the BNV and Ugljanin with the decisions that are envisaged by the Action Plan that we have done within the context of Chapter 23, especially in the domain of national minorities,” Miscevic told TV Pink. “Ugljanin will not say this, but when we started working, they were taking part very actively and their proposals were actively accepted until we reached the issue of Sandzak’s autonomy since this goes beyond the framework of the Action Plan and Serbia,” said Miscevic.

REGIONAL PRESS

Srebrenica in the wake of Seselj’s acquittal (Patria)

Followers of Vojislav Seselj celebrated the acquittal of their leader by driving victory laps from Bratunac to Srebrenica. Mayor of Srebrenica Camil Durakovic said that those couple of hours of celebrations brought in a great deal of fear and anxiety among Bosniak returnees. As soon as media published pictures from Srebrenica and Durakovic’s statement, he was contacted by the Office of High Representative, requesting additional information. “I also received a telephone call from SDP President Nermin Niksic. He asked what was going on and offered to help. He said that he was at our disposal 24 hours a day for anything we would need that was in his power. No other politician from Federation of B&H called to check on us” said the mayor of Srebrenica Camil Durakovic. “Believe me, those calls mean a great deal to us because they give you strength to carry on in this struggle to remain on your own land regardless of all provocations that happen to us” said Durakovic. Meanwhile the OHR issued the statement strongly condemning the behavior of Serb Radical Party supporters in Srebrenica and Potocari, following the ICTY verdict in the case of Vojislav Seselj.

Frequent operations of SIPA do not represent a blow to the RS banking system (Srna)

The B&H Court rejected the Prosecutor’s Office proposal to remand in custody all the suspects arrested in the operation code-named “Lavina” and ordered them restrictive measures instead, the Court told Srna. SDS Presidency member Aleksandra Pandurevic says she is surprised by the decision of the Court of B&H to order restrictive measures to the persons arrested in an operation codenamed “Lavina” because it is a major case of organize crime, and that she is not certain that the judiciary of Republika Srpska (RS) and B&H is able to handle it. In the scope of Operation Lavina, officers of SIPA arrested Dragan Radumilo, who was the director of Bobar Bank from its foundation until 2010, the Prosecutor’s Office said on Saturday. Snezana Vujnic, the director of the Investment and Development Bank of RS, who was also arrested in the police operation codenamed Lavina, has been released pending trial and ordered certain restrictive measures, her lawyer Dragan Stupar told Srna. Miljkan Pucar, the lawyer of the RS Banking Agency Slavica Injac, told Srna that he possesses unofficial information that Injac had been released pending trial. Injac, Vujnic, and eight other people were arrested on suspicion of embezzling BAM123 million from Bobar Banka and the B&H banking sector. The People’s Democratic Movement (NDP) condemns every political qualification regarding the Bobar Bank investigations and supports the idea of investigations concerning abuse in the RS banks to be conducted thoroughly, said NDP leader Dragan Cavic. Serb member of the B&H Presidency, Mladen Ivanic, believes that frequent operations of SIPA regarding the banking sector in RS do not represent a blow to the banking system.

Session of the B&H Presidency today (Klix)

At the session which is to be held today, among other things the B&H Presidency will consider the Proposal of Decision on accepting the agreement and designating a signatory to the Agreement between B&H and Montenegro on collocation of diplomatic-consular offices. The agenda should also include the accession to the Paris agreement along with Framework Convention of the United Nations on climate change, and a decision will also be made about the invitation by the Secretary General of the UN to participate at the ceremony of the signing of the Paris agreement on climate change in New York, which is to take place on April 22. The Presidency should also declare about the draft decision on accepting the agreement and designating a signatory to the Memorandum of understanding and cooperation in the field of youth between B&H and the State of Qatar. Moreover, two information will be considered – one about the initiative of NATO for execution of an international drill of removing consequences of a disaster in B&H in 2017 and the other about the work of the Deposit Insurance Agency of B&H for 2015 and the Financial Plan for 2016. The decision draft on launching the procedure for conducting negotiations in order to conclude an Agreement on Grant by the Global Environment Facility Trust Fund and the Special Climate Change Fund and the Project of managing the Drina river basin in the Western Balkans, between B&H and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, were also proposed for the agenda of the session, the Presidency of B&H stated.​

Boyle replied: Lawsuit of B&H against Serbia is getting sabotaged again (Novo vrijeme)

Francis A. Boyle, professor of international law at the American University of Illinois, fighter for human freedom and a former agent of B&H at the International Court of Justice recently talked about the lawsuit of B&H against Serbia and why it failed. He stated that they should have started working on a revision of the judgment of B&H against Serbia long time ago. He emphasized that B&H government led by Bakir Izetbegovic have not done any of that in the last 9 years. The Chairman of the Presidency of B&H, Bakir Izetbegovic, replied on his statement. “I do not know what Mr. Boyle thinks I should have done, and he knows what I did, so I do not want to comment his statement. The lawsuit is possible. Terrible things have happened in B&H and someone is guilty for them. We need a new proof, and we do not have it at the moment. Will it come up after reading the complete content of the indictment to Karadzic, we’ll see. This job will be done by professionals, not Izetbegovic. If it comes up, I’ll be the one to provide logistical and political support to do it,” said Izetbegovic. Boyle reiterated his position: “Bakir Izetbegovic admitted that no one has done absolutely anything for the past 9 years to prepare an application for review of the judgment of the International Court of 2007, which is exactly what I wanted to say. Again, it’s sabotage. The complaint to the International Court of Justice in 2007 against Yugoslavia, including Serbia and Montenegro is consistently and thoroughly sabotaged since 1996,” said Boyle.

B&H registers several thousand potential terrorists (MIA)

Security services in B&H have registered several thousand persons linked to radical Islamist movements, who could be potential terrorist attackers, stated Chief of Republika Srpska (RS) Police Gojko Vasic. “The number of these people, who are members of the Wahhabis movement and can often be terrorist attackers, totals in several thousands, according to B&H’s Intelligence Security Agency (OSA),” said Vasic. He stressed that the bulk of the people who are a major security threat are staying on the B&H territory. Vasic believes that the fight against terrorism in B&H is made difficult with the current legal limitations, including the lack of intelligence exchange for the potentially dangerous people. According to him, the issue is especially accentuated when it comes to people from B&H who live abroad, and can be linked to terrorists. “That refers to the so-called second generation of B&H expatriates to the western European countries, added Vasic. He does not exclude the possibility of having other locations throughout the country where terrorist training could take place, underlining that there are many isolated areas in the country where not even shootings would attract much attention.​

ICTY suspends Hadzic trial indefinitely – attorney (Hina)

The trial of Croatian Serb rebel leader Goran Hadzic, indicted by the ICTY has been suspended indefinitely due to his poor health, the media quoted Hadzic’s attorney Zoran Zivanovic as saying on Saturday.

Vujanovic: I do not see Djukanovic’s statement on Seselj as a statesman’s or politician’s opinion (RTCG)

Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic does not take the statement of Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic on the acquittal of the SRS leader Vojislav Seselj to be a statement representing his opinion as a statesman or politician. When asked by journalists to give comment on Seselj’s acquittal, Vujanovic was clear. “You are well aware that I never comment on verdicts. I explained to our public on many occasions that I do not think comments on verdicts of national or international courts are wise,” he said. Still, because it is a decision of the International Court, he gave his opinion on the whole process. “The ICTY has shown so far that the guilt is a matter of an individual and that their criminal proceedings are against the individuals who are charged. Whether these proceedings end with an acquittal or a charge, they represent an individual decision in relation to the person charged in Hague Court. These decisions should in no way influence the relationships between people and states in the space of former Yugoslavia,” Vujanovic said. The ICTY has not been created to make peace or war between our people and our states. “It was created to make decisions on guilt of those charged. I see verdicts in The Hague in relation to those who were charged from the point of view of evidence demonstrated,” Vujanovic was clear. In relation to Prime Minister’s statement, Vujanovic said he did not see it as an opinion of a statesman or politician. “I believe he follow a custom that exists in our people, which is to express sentiment on the freedom of those who were incarcerated for a long time. Seselj was in jail for almost 12 years, and Prime Minister’s statement was, in my opinion, a personal impression of a citizen, not a politician or statesman,” Vujanovic said. He reminded of the government’s attitude towards Seselj during the time of his activities in Montenegro. “You are aware he was denied residence in Montenegro. He was banished from Montenegro during the time of Djukanovic’s government. No radical idea can ever take ground here. It is an idea on the far right. It was marked as destructive for Serbia in Prime Minister’s Vucic statement as well. In Montenegro, there is no ground for destruction and extremism to succeed. I believe that our Prime Minister has the same statesman and political attitude towards radicals as he has always had. His statement was a citizen’s opinion towards a freedom gained based on proceedings that were long and had a long jail time as well,” Vujanovic said. As far as he is concerned, he remains steadfast in his attitude. “I do not comment on verdicts. I do not express my opinions towards the charged, except to state the facts and the verdict. I think my biography of a man who dealt with guilt shows that this is an appropriate attitude for a president of a country,” Vujanovic said.

Draft Agreement acceptable to opposition in principle (CDM)

Draft Agreement on creating conditions for free and fair elections in Montenegro that was sent out to all parliamentary parties by Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, is acceptable in principle to part of the opposition, CDM learns. CDM learned unofficially that the Draft Agreement complies with requests of the opposition. The official confirmation from the opposition will be announced after the meeting that is currently in session. In Draft Agreement it is stated that the opposition will get a function of Vice President of the Government and four minister positions, in the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Interior Affairs, Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. In the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education the opposition will have positions of minister’s assistant with special authorizations. The control of Agency for National Security ANB will be done through the institution of Inspector General. Doubts were expressed in relation to abuse in electoral process in certain state institutions, so the opposition will control and create a system of continuous reports in Employment Bureau, Fund of Labor, Directorate for Public Works, Fund for Investment and Development, Directorate for Traffic, Tax Administration, Institute for Social and Child Protection, Real Estate Administration, Customs Bureau, Directorate for Forests, Fund for Pension Insurance, Directorate for Development of Small and Medium Companies, Remand Jail ZIKS, Inspection Administration, Fund for Health and Agency for Electronic Media. Representatives of the opposition will hold positions of managers or assistant managers with special authorization in these institutions. The deadline for the implementation of government positions is 15 days since the signing of the Agreement, and the deadline for implementing positions in the state administration is 10 days since the implementation of Government positions. The deadline for holding regular parliamentary elections is 9 October 2016.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Rewriting the Balkan wars (AFP, by Jo Biddle, 2 April 2016)

Legal experts and historians have reacted with outrage to the controversial war crimes acquittal of firebrand Serb Vojislav Seselj, saying it overturns international law and rewrites the history of the Balkans conflict. “The decision of the majority (judges) is divorced from the reality of what was happening in Croatia and Bosnia,” said former top US diplomat on war crimes issues, Stephen Rapp. No stranger to complex cases, having led the prosecution of ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor, Rapp said he was very “disappointed” that Seselj was on Thursday found not guilty of nine charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The majority ruling by a three-judge panel at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) departed “from established law and accepted practices of fact-finding,” said Rapp, now an expert with the Hague Global Institute for Justice, a think tank. Seselj, once a firebrand paramilitary leader, had been charged with murder, persecution and torture of non-Serb civilians by being allegedly a member of a “joint criminal enterprise” along with the late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. But in essence, the judges found that Seselj was a politician who ardently supported his vision of a Greater Serbia, but was not a criminal. The judges also tossed aside decades of international law by saying “the crimes happened in an atmosphere of war, and this justifies them,” said Balkans expert Eric Gordy. “This is simply in conflict with the law,” added Gordy, a senior lecturer on Southeast European politics at University College London. Chief ICTY prosecutor Serge Brammertz is already studying the judgment to see if there are grounds for appeal, and said many of the judges’ arguments were “absolutely not in line with the factual reality.” Dissenting judge Flavia Lattanzi, in an unusually strong opinion, said her two colleagues had used “insufficient reasoning, or no reasoning at all” to support their acquittal of Seselj, “in contravention” of the court’s rules. Read by French judge Jean-Claude Antonetti, the judgement acquitted Seselj of any wrongdoing during the period of the indictment between August 1991 and September 1993. “The prosecution failed to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that there was a widespread and systematic attack against the non-Serb civilian population in large areas of Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina,” Antonetti said. He specifically mentioned Vukovar, a Croatian town razed by Serb forces in November 1991, and Zvornik where some 40,000 non-Serb Bosnians were expelled by paramilitary groups in 1992. As for Seselj’s inflammatory speeches such as urging Serb forces attacking Vukovar “to spare no one,” he was “participating in the war effort by galvanizing the Serb forces,” the judges concluded.

The historical facts outlined by the judges “conflict with what the tribunal has found and what researchers and others know about what happened,” said Gordy, the Balkans expert. He highlighted in particular the finding that there was no sustained attack on civilians in the Croatian town of Vukovar. “This is an impossible claim,” said Gordy. Vukovar suffered a three-month long siege before being captured by Serb forces in November 1991. The hospital was heavily shelled throughout the siege, but stayed open, coping with desperate conditions including a lack of medicines, electricity, food and water. In late November 1991, Serb soldiers abused some 400 wounded Croats and other non-Serbs from the hospital to nearby Ovcara. Some 260 of them were taken to a secluded farm, where they were beaten, killed and buried in mass graves. This kind of historical revision is quite simply unacceptable,” said Niccolo Figa-Talamanca, head of the No Peace Without Justice.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Ethnic tensions escalate in Mostar, ‘most divided’ city (AA, by Kayhan Gul & Talha Ozturk, 2 April 2016)

BELGRADE, Serbia – Ethnic tensions are beginning to rise again in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s historical city of Mostar as it edges close to local elections this year.

The elections, if held in October like in the rest of the country, will be the first after a gap of eight years in the city. Mostar has been administratively divided into six municipalities, equally between Bosnians and Croats since the Bosnian War in 1995. Bosnians live mainly in the eastern part of Neretva River, while Croats are on the western side.

– Three provocations in one week

Recently, three provocative actions targeted the sentiments of Bosnians in Mostar, sparking tensions in an already divided city. Last week, a Croatian flag was drawn on nearby mountain Planinica on the Croats-majority side of the city, which sparked outrage among Bosnians, who objected that the city was not part of Croatia, but Bosnia. In the same week, an unidentified person threw a stone inscribed with “do not forget 93” in the Neretva River, which too created anger among Bosnians. The stones symbolically represent the Old Bridge, which was destroyed in 1993 by Croats. Also, a sign that bore names of the countries that contributed to the reconstruction of the Old Bridge has been damaged within the same week.

– No local elections since 2008

In 2004, former High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina Paddy Ashdown had taken an initiative to bridge differences between two sides in the city by issuing a new statute aimed at establishing a single municipality in Mostar. But the regulations could not be confirmed and put into action due to opposition by Croats, who feared Bosnians would get equal or even more rights in parts of the city where the Croats are in majority. Because of the statute issued in the city, local elections were not held in Mostar in 2012 like they did in 2008. Leaders on both sides had failed to agree in Bosnia’s House of Representatives, one of two chambers of parliament, eventually paving the way for the Constitutional Court to declare that the electoral statute of the city was unconstitutional. As a result, the municipality remains without a city council since 2012, which has created severe management issues in Mostar. Mostar Mayor Ljubo Beslic, who belongs to the Croatian Democratic Union, today functions as a unitary authority elected through six voting units. Every unit has the same number of councilors despite different number of voters in the unit. The Bosniak Party of Democratic Action is the other main party in the city.

– Lack of leadership

Bosnian leaders have so far fallen short of resolving the ongoing struggle for organizing local elections in Mostar. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Presidency Council Chairman Bakir Izetbegovic said on Sunday that talks over Mostar remained futile. “If there are four plenipotentiary municipalities in Sarajevo, I do not think there would be a problem for Mostar to have four or six municipalities,” Izetbegovic said. Dragan Covic, Croation member of the council, said Sunday his side was ready to offer solutions. “Unfortunately, I did not receive any comments on our party’s solution offer. I think no one read our proposal. I want everyone to read the solution we propose,” Covic said. But while both leaders reviewed their own proposals, they neither offered any reactions to the recent acts of provocations in Mostar nor urged the public to stay calm. It is because of this indecisiveness that it now remains unclear whether Mostar will go into local elections in October this year or not like in the rest of the country.

– Bridging the gap

Apart from being a tourist attraction, the bridge has a significant piece of history attached to it.

In fact, Mostar city is mostly known for its iconic Old Bridge that connects the eastern and western side of the city, which is constructed alongside the Neretva River. The Old Bridge was built between 1557 and 1566 after the citizens of Mostar requested Sultan Suleiman the Great for one. However, on Nov. 9, 1993, the Old Bridge was destroyed by heavy fire from Croatian forces. The International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia had sentenced former Bosnian Croat leader Jadranko Prlic and five co-defendants to 10 and 25 years jail time on charges of “ethnic cleansing” of Bosnian Muslims and destruction of the Ottoman-era Old Bridge of Mostar during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. But while the bridge was reconstructed in 2004, which one hoped would reunite the city’s east and the west, people continue to struggle living together in the small Bosnian city. In fact, today it is known as the ‘most divided city’ in Bosnia.

Citizens in Mostar hope the divide between the two peoples will end one day. They also believe the recent acts of provocations were nothing but “dirty election games” and “political tricks” designed at increasing tensions between ethnic groups before local elections are due. Adisa Maslo Hadziomerovic told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that all such provocations are being carried out to prove who is a better Bosnian or Croat. “Unfortunately, this is proof that nationalism winds the minds,” Hadziomerovic said. Vera Soldo, a journalist, also condemned the recent attacks on the historical bridge of Mostar and pointed out that the bridge comes under protection of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Another citizen, Irma Pehilj, called for unity in Mostar. Pehilj said: “Mostar is not only the most beautiful city of Bosnia, it is also in the world. Let’s be one. Let’s defend our city with love.”