KOJIĆ AND VULIĆ FILE CRIMINAL COMPLAINT AGAINST CERIĆ OVER RACIAL AND RELIGIOUS HATE INCITEMENT

SARAJEVO, SEPTEMBER 17 /SRNA/ – Members of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly Milorad Kojić and Sanja Vulić have filed a criminal complaint with the BiH Prosecutor's Office against former head of the Islamic Community in BiH Mustafa Cerić, accusing him of inciting national, racial and religious hatred, discord and intolerance.

In the complaint, Kojić and Vulić allege that Cerić published content on his Facebook profile that, in their view, clearly denies the existence of Serb victims and grossly downplays or seeks to justify crimes established by final judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and courts in Republika Srpska and BiH.

The complaint cites Cerić's posts saying, "Look at our victims so that you do not see our crimes," and, "That is precisely why linking contemporary Italy with fascism should not be presented as a claim without evidence," which Kojić and Vulić interpret as an allusion to the Republika Srpska Memorial Center campaign titled "Meet the Serb Victims," portraying it as fascist.

According to the complaint, Cerić described the campaign as a "war against the truth," which Kojić and Vulić say amounts to denying the authenticity of images of Serb victims and denying that Serb civilian victims existed during the war, despite court judgments establishing such crimes.

"The very title, 'Appeal of the Day - We Will Not Wait Again for Others to Count Our Dead,' contains a concealed call for renewed armed conflict between the three peoples and the two entities," Kojić and Vulić stated in the complaint.

They point out that Cerić's Facebook post calls on members of his people to remain prepared because, in his view, a new conflict may be approaching amid what he described as a "social atmosphere" resembling a pre-war situation.

They singled out as particularly concerning the following passage:

"From Sarajevo to Novi Pazar, from Prizren to Zagreb, from Mostar and Tuzla to the European and American centers of our diaspora, it is necessary to establish a serious, responsible and lasting framework for consultation. Not another gathering for photographs, not another platform for party disputes and not an assembly of uniform thinking, but a common table of national responsibility. At that table, a strategy must be developed for the democratic, political, legal, diplomatic, economic and security protection of Bosniaks and BiH."

"In this part of the text, there is an all-national call to Bosniaks to struggle against some fictitious Serb enemy, as well as a rejection of BiH's positions on the territorial integrity of the Republic of Serbia and the creation of some new pro-Bosniak project. He describes such a gathering as a fight 'against the possibility of crimes being repeated,'" the complaint states.

With all this included, Kojić and Vulić called on the BiH Prosecutor's Office to determine whether there are grounds to suspect the criminal offense of inciting national, racial and religious hatred, discord and intolerance, and to urgently open an investigation into Cerić. They said this should be done with due regard for fairness and with caution that such writings, and any possible public speeches, could contribute to more serious criminal offenses.