NUŽDIĆ: PROSECUTE THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR ATTACK ON SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH IN TUZLA

BANJA LUKA, OCTOBER 2 /SRNA/ – Acting Director of the Republika Srpska Center for the Study of War, War Crimes, and Missing Persons Viktor Nuždić has called on all competent institutions in the FBiH to do their job and prosecute those responsible for threats against Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church /SOC/ in Tuzla.

"Until adequate punishment is imposed, this will continue to happen," Nuždić told SRNA following the threatening letter sent to the SOC.

Nuždić reminded that crimes committed against Serbs during the last war, as well as throughout the 20th century, have never been properly sanctioned, noting that in the past punishments were often avoided in the name of "brotherhood and unity," and today apparently due to political decisions.

"It is therefore not surprising that, for some, the war is still not over, and they continue to consider it perfectly normal to belittle and attack everything Serbian," Nuždić said.

He concluded that, unfortunately, Serbs in the FBiH, as well as those from Croatia, were largely expelled, and now it appears that some individuals are attempting to target the last witnesses of Serb presence in these areas—some returning Serbs, mostly elderly, along with cemeteries and churches.

Dževad Hasić, already known for threats and vandalistic incursions into Orthodox churches, sent the threatening letter from Tuzla prison, in which he announced that he would "switch the church bell to vibration".

He threatened that he would "convert the priest with the church lamp to Islam so that he could recite the ezan five times a day with the greatest pleasure," and that he would "replace the cross with the crescent and star like in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, with the greeting `Allahu Akbar`".