The officials of the European Union (EU) and the United States (U.S.) are “crusaders” for them, and they have a “big plan” in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). They fill their content with inaccurate information about the efforts of the international community in BiH. These are several profiles on social networks, whose regular activities were monitored by Radio Free Europe (RSE).
“Bosniak Sparta” (Bosnjacka sparta) is the name of a Facebook and Instagram profile whose description states that it is a movement of Bosnian nationalists, as well as that Sandzak, a region in the southwest of Serbia where predominantly Muslim Bosniaks live, should actually be part of BiH.
In their announcements, they regularly repeat that it is about one nation, which is divided into two corps.
“And we must never forget who defended our Bosnia and defended it together with us! So rejoice, people of Sandzak, rejoice Sandzak Bosnia,” they say from the “Bosniak Sparta” Instagram profile. The page is followed by about 420 followers, and the content is often shared on other platforms.
One of the announcements that has recently been shared several times on other networks is the one about Jurgen Schmidt, a member of the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) in BiH, who was killed during the 1993 war in central Bosnia.
“Bosniak Sparta” in its publication about Jurgen Schmidt says that he is a relative of the high representative, without offering any evidence for such a claim, nor an explanation why it is important that they are relatives.
They use this as an “argument” why High Representative Schmidt is, as they state, “a Croatian man”.
Jurgen Schmidt, a martyred member of the HVO, was born in Schwetzingen, in the west of Germany, about 140 kilometers from Obernzen.
In the announcement of June 30th, “Bosniak Sparta”, along with a photo reminiscent of the Nazi one – with a black lily on a white background with a red frame, says that they plan to go public after the elections scheduled for October 2022 and start political activities, in BiH and Sandzak.
In one of the comments from the page, they deny that the symbol is Nazi, but that “red color means energy” that moves supporters, and the lily is a medieval symbol of Bosnia.
In post-conflict societies such as BiH, instead of the spread of democracy, ideas, and tolerance, which may have been the idea of the founders of the Internet, we have the spread of hate speech, intolerance, calls for lynching or aggression, assesses Mladen Bubonjic, a communication specialist from Banja Luka, who investigated hate speech in the online space.
“One small spark is enough, every action causes a reaction, it doesn’t even matter which national or ethnic group is involved. The people have a wise saying – what one fool messes up, a hundred can’t solve,” told Bubonjic.
