RENEWED ANTI-SERB HOSTILITY IN SARAJEVO

BELGRADE, OCTOBER 13 /SRNA/ - Historian Aleksandar Raković said in a statement to SRNA that hatred toward Serbs was beginning to rise again in Sarajevo, saying an incident in which the tires of a car belonging to Serbian tourists were slashed sent a message that Serbs were not welcome in the city or in other parts of the Federation of BiH /FBiH/.

Raković described such acts as a "Croatian scenario" and said he believed the reason for such treatment of Serbian tourists was hatred toward Serbs in general.

"That is the only reason - to deepen hatred and send the message that Serbs are not welcome, and this in a city where, little more than 30 years ago, several hundred thousand of them lived," Raković said.

He reminded of the fact that Sarajevo had once been the third-largest Serb city in the former Yugoslavia by number of Serb residents, after Belgrade and Novi Sad, while Niš ranked fourth.

"I do not know why people feel the need to go there as tourists when they are not safe. It is as though they are unaware of what could happen to them," Raković said, also referring to a recent youth football tournament in Sarajevo where, he said, Serbian children and their parents were harassed.

According to Raković, anyone who still wants to visit Sarajevo should park their car in Istočno Sarajevo and travel into the city by other means in order to avoid similar incidents.

He said Serbs living around Sarajevo on the territory of Republika Srpska should also be asked about the situation and consulted on whether people should travel to Sarajevo and other parts of FBiH at all.

Raković said he believed hatred toward Serbs in Sarajevo would, unfortunately, persist for decades and even centuries.

"There should be no illusions. So much time has already passed since the wars in Yugoslavia, yet the hatred still exists and in some places is probably even stronger. In some areas it declined somewhat after the war. However, as we can see, it is beginning to rise again," Raković said.

In Sarajevo's Breka neighborhood, an unidentified person slashed two tires on a car with Belgrade license plates during the night between Sunday and Monday.