In Banja Luka’s Mejdan neighborhood, a new mural depicting Ratko Mladic was spotted. The president of the Association of Returnees of Banja Luka, Kemal Gunic, said that returnees informed him about it a few days ago and that he will send a letter to the competent institutions.
“Returnees come to our office and report it, because it offends them, disturbs them, and they don’t dare to go to the police themselves, they are afraid,” says Gunic.
He claims that incidents such as this mural have led to a decrease in the number of returnees in this city, and that there are almost no young people because, due to political pressures, they cannot make a living in their city.
“Our youth have gone to Western countries, seeking better living conditions; they don’t have them here, and those conditions are questionable even for us older ones,” he says.
From the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska (RS), no response was received to the inquiry whether the mural had been reported and what steps would be taken to identify the perpetrators. From the City of Banja Luka, no response was given to the inquiry about removing the mural, and the mayor, Drasko Stanivukovic, did not answer the call.
Vice President of RS Camil Durakovic says that murals are painted all over RS and that the reaction of the competent authorities is generally nonexistent. He sees the new mural in Banja Luka only as a reflection of politics that represents an authority resisting facing the past.
“This entity is governed by politics that support war criminals. Just imagine us as surviving victims – what can we achieve in terms of human rights? What can we expect from such politics? We can’t expect anything,” said Durakovic.
Ratko Mladic was sentenced in The Hague to life imprisonment for genocide and other crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
The ban on glorifying war criminals or denying war crimes was introduced through amendments to the Criminal Code of BiH, imposed by High Representative Valentin Inzko in July 2021.
Durakovic states that he will report the new mural, as he reported previous ones, and that he will not give up the fight despite all the obstructions, pressures, and blockages of institutions that act against returnees.
“The fact that the Prosecutor’s Office, after the High Representative amended and supplemented the Criminal Code, does not do its job – that is the handicap of this system and the state, which has no strength to deal with it. In the long run, we will have a problem and a burden for our future generations, we did not cut the evil at its root, and we live with it today,” said Durakovic.
The Prosecutor’s Office of BiH has raised six indictments for the criminal offense of “incitement to national, racial, and religious hatred, discord and intolerance” which includes the ban on denial of war crimes and glorification of convicted war criminals, of which the Court of BiH in one case refused to confirm the indictment, while in another case two indictments against Vojin Pavlovic were merged into one case. Pavlovic was convicted in a first-instance ruling.
Through two investigations, BiH media analyzed negative prosecutorial decisions in order to determine shortcomings in the work of the Prosecutor’s Office in reports of denial of crimes and glorification of convicted war criminals. The latest investigation shows that state prosecutors in the past two years have explained their decisions better, but still have a small number of indictments for denial of crimes, despite the large number of reports, Detektor reports.
