The director of the Srebrenica Memorial Center, Emir Suljagić, refused to host Swedish Ambassador Helena Lagerlöf today after she did not want to cancel the visit to the head of Srebrenica, Mladen Grujicic, that she had planned for the same day.
Suljagić explained to us that the Swedish ambassador hid the details of the visit from them, but that he and his associates learned yesterday that she intends to visit Grujičić after the Memorial Center.
“When I found out, yesterday at 2 pm I called the Embassy of Sweden. I had a conversation with the deputy head of the mission. I told her very openly that I couldn’t come to our place if she was going to him. I didn’t even tell her that I couldn’t go to him at all, if it can fit under their cheek. But I can’t be at the Memorial Center and at his place on the same day because then they have to lie to one of us. She told me that she would answer us by the end of the day,” Suljagić explained.
He explains that he was told that he would receive an answer about a possible protocol change by the end of the day, but that did not happen.
“I came to work this morning and asked to be called the Embassy of Sweden. We got one of the employees of the Embassy and I ask her openly to tell me what the plan is because I do not want to participate in the normalization of Mladen Grujicic’s behavior and his politics. She tells me that the ambassador decided not to change the protocol. Then I told her to continue directly with Grujičić because she will not have any problems here,” said Suljagić and added that that was the end of it.
However, only half an hour later, as Suljagić says, the Swedish ambassador and her entourage parked in front of the main entrance to the Memorial Center.
“They came to my office. The deputy head of the mission came. First I asked my deputy to deal with it, then when that didn’t help either I went out and said I can’t come to us, I repeated what I said before. I hope that they understood, that is, they understood and turned back. I don’t know where they went after that,” said Suljagić.
As he explained, the conversation outside his office was “passionate but very polite.”
“I told them twice not to do that. The Srebrenica Memorial Center is not a place on the way when you go to see the chief. If you come here, dedicate that one day to us. This is a combination of laziness and colonial arrogance. She dared to come to my door after which I said twice that I’m not interested. It’s a horror. They behave as if this is Namibia and the beginning of the 20th century,” said Suljagić, Klix.ba writes.
