The mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karić, by awarding the members of the AntiDayton movement, caused a lot of negative reactions, and some of them include Edin Ramulić from Prijedor from the initiative “Jer me se tice” which organizes the marking of the Day of White Ribbons.
Regardless of what her intention was, Karić should know that numerous informal groups with questionable intentions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the region, but also in the whole of Europe, are “hiding” behind humanitarian work. Benjamina Karić thus presented gold coins of the City of Sarajevo to members of the AntiDayton movement.
“This is the first time that an institution in Bosnia and Herzegovina has recognized the engagement and work of the AntiDayton movement both in the patriotic way and in the humanitarian field,” they stated from this movement headed by Nihad Alicković.
After numerous condemnations of the actions of the mayor of Sarajevo, the mayor of East Sarajevo Ljubiša Ćosić also spoke out, who believes that Benjamina Karić, by receiving and handing over gold coins of the City of Sarajevo to the representatives of the “Anti-Dayton movement”, proved the long-standing claims of the Republika Srpska that Bosniak political representatives support anti-Dayton and anti-constitutional operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“In any normal country, which BiH has not been for a long time, such a move would be characterized as a serious anti-constitutional action,” Cosić said.
He added that the “AntiDayton movement” and its leader Nihad Alicković have long been recognized by the public as extremists whose work is based on anti-constitutional actions and spreading intolerance towards Serbs and Republika Srpska.
“Such people, who openly fight against the Constitution of the country they supposedly love more than anything, are officially received and awarded by the mayor of something that should be the capital of everyone in BiH. And then the Republika Srpska and the Serbs do not care about us either, who we are fighting for the Constitution of BiH as it was written, they accuse us of anti-constitutional action. BiH is truly an incredible paradox,” Ćosić assessed.
After this, Ćosić said, Bosniak politicians should not be surprised, nor do they have the right to be hysterical, if a movement appears in BiH that will fight exclusively for the independence of Republika Srpska, and whose representatives will be welcome guests in the official institutions of the republic and local level.
Edin Ramulić, a resident of Prijedor and part of the initiative “Jer me se tice”, which has been organizing the commemoration of White Ribbons in Prijedor for years, also reacted to the awarding of Aličković and other members of the movement, as well as the adoption of the conclusion to mark the Day of White Ribbons on May 31 by placing a large white sheet over the Town Hall.
“We have reacted before when they mix and pollute the Day of White Ribbons by organizing their militaristic projects. They are recognized as an extremist organization and they really are. They are not even an organization, they are not registered anywhere, so they operate illegally,” he said.
He pointed out that the members of “Jer me tice” are the target of numerous threats, insults and curses from members of the AntiDayton movement.
“And this has been happening continuously for years. Since last year, secretly, although there was a public discussion, it was not announced anywhere that in the budget of the City of Sarajevo there is an item for the celebration of the Day of White Ribbons, after the celebration of July 11. That is for us absolutely unacceptable. The only expense we have had for years is 102 roses and the publication of the obituary. There is no other expense. It is unacceptable for us that any money appears, that something is budgeted and that anyone is paid. But that team is ready, they sell illegally various things with the symbols of the army and the state. That’s their way of working. They collect money from the people of Prijedor in the diaspora, something that is directed directly against everything we do in Prijedor,” says Ramulić.
He said that many people from Prijedor are not surprised that such a move comes from the SDP and that they are absolutely against putting a white sheet over the Sarajevo City Hall directed by politicians.
“They took away from us five years of struggle so that the parents of the murdered children could receive a monument. It is not surprising to us that people from the SDP treat the narrative about the war and the victims in this way. We will react by trying to protect the Day of the White Ribbons by legal and other means, any government institutions take it as their right to mark and that some money appears there. We are absolutely against the installation of a white sheet and other projects behind which politicians and similar organizations stand,” he concluded.
Edin Ramulić is also known for the fact that last year he asked the then federal prime minister Fadil Novalić (SDA) to leave the square in Prijedor during the marking of the Day of White Ribbons and to give statements to the media elsewhere, Klix.ba reports.
