VIOLATION OF SERB RIGHTS IN FBiH

ISTOČNO SARAJEVO, FEBRUARY 7 /SRNA/ – Everything that is happening with the appropriation of Serb property, as well as the trampling of political, human, and civil rights of Serbs in the Federation of BiH /FBiH/, is an example of what they would be exposed to across the whole of BiH if there were no Republika Srpska.

Legal expert Ognjen Tadić has told SRNA that forces of authority and lawlessness, in various forms, applied against Serbs in the FBiH are even more expressed in smaller communities than in Sarajevo, Tuzla, or Mostar.

"In smaller communities, Serbs are not only almost eradicated, but even where they exist, they must suppress their national feelings and retreat in the face of any personal interest of members of one of the two national majorities in local communities in the FBiH. Similar violence is also perpetrated by Bosniaks and Croats against each other, so the possibility that Serbs would be bypassed or spared from such relations is essentially minimal," Tadić stressed.

Tadić noted that, as a result of all this, the deprivation of rights from Serbs often serves to settle interests of Bosniaks or Croats that remain unfulfilled after their mutual conflicts.

"For this reason, the FBiH can still rightly be called a Muslim-Croat federation, and it is clear that there will be no stable justice for any individual on its entire territory until it is divided and, in that way, Bosniak-Croat conflicts are resolved for a longer period," Tadić assessed.

ERASING TRACES OF SERB EXISTENCE

One example of the brazen seizure of property of the Serbian Orthodox Church /SOC/ is the fact that the Municipal Court in Mostar registered in the cadastre two cemeteries in the Vrapčići neighborhood, with an Orthodox church and chapel, as "state" property. Although, according to the Law on Land Registers of the FBiH, it was obliged to do so, the Court did not notify the Mostar Serbian Orthodox Church Municipality as the possessor and party to the proceedings about the registration of the property. The Cathedral of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in Zenica and the land around the church were also registered as "state property."

During the war, Serbs who found themselves on territories controlled by Muslim-Croat forces and their leadership were targeted. Those they could not kill were expelled from their hearths that had been Serb for centuries.

Three decades after the war, the persecution of Serbs, mostly elderly and helpless, has continued, and now, in addition to Serb private property, church property is also being targeted, brazenly seized and destroyed. Churches, monasteries, cemeteries, and other buildings that had been the property of the SOC for centuries are being taken away.

It is enough to mention only the property of the SOC in Sarajevo, which is unfoundedly labeled multicultural, while to this day church property has not been returned in that city.

In the center of Sarajevo is the building of the Faculty of Economics, which belongs to the Metropolitanate of Dabar-Bosnia and which, with the consent of the then High Representative Valentin Inzko and Sarajevo and other higher levels of government, was supposed to be returned to the Metropolitanate, but this has not been implemented to this day and, by all accounts, never will be.

All this is being done in order to destroy, by all means, the traces of the existence of the SOC and the Serb people in the territory of today’s FBiH.

HE WHO ATTACKS ANOTHER FAITH AND THE PROPERTY OF OTHER FAITHS CANNOT BE A BELIEVER

The President of the Srebrenica Organization of Families of Captured and Fallen Fighters and Missing Civilians, Branimir Kojić, told SRNA that after the Resolution on Srebrenica he warned that attacks would begin against Republika Srpska, the Serb people, and also the SOC, which is happening these days in the FBiH, where the seizure of property, churches, monasteries, and cemeteries is underway.

"This is a message to Serbs that they are not welcome in the FBiH, but also that Serb bones resting on centuries-old hearths that, after the Dayton Agreement, became part of the FBiH, are an obstacle to them," Kojić stated.

He mentioned the almost daily attacks and desecrations of Orthodox cemeteries in the FBiH that most often go unpunished.

"It was not enough for the federal executioners who in the war killed Serb children and expelled Serbs from their hearths, so today, after being rewarded with positions for their bloody wartime work, they decided to finish the job and move toward creating a unitary BiH in line with the 'Islamic Declaration' written by Alija Izetbegović," Kojić emphasized.

He said that this is not only the case in the FBiH, but that even in Republika Srpska there are constant attacks on SOC clergy and monastics, for example in Srebrenica, where SOC religious officials are under constant pressure from federal media and Bosniak officials, including Vice President of Srpska Ćamil Duraković, MP Ramiz Salkić, and many others.

"They are going a step further, where students of the local school in Potočari desecrate an Orthodox cemetery, and unfortunately we have no information that they have been punished either at school or before the law, because everything is justified by saying that they are 'just children,' and we know that children learn everything at home, so it is clear that this was planned," Kojić said.

Kojić stressed that it is obvious that there is no place for the Serb people in such a BiH and that Serbs must move toward their own independence for the sake of peace for all citizens of BiH, which has long shown itself to be a dysfunctional and unsustainable protectorate.

"We give full support to the SOC in the fight to protect its property because only through its perseverance can the Serb Orthodox people remain on their hearths and Orthodoxy survive these attacks by villains and non-believers, since he who attacks another faith and the property of other faiths cannot be a believer," Kojić said.