POLICY OF PERSECUTION AND WAR CRIMES STILL PRESENT IN FBiH INSTITUTIONS

SARAJEVO, SEPTEMBER 16 /SRNA/ – Nikola Špirić, chairman of the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, told SRNA that the provocations the Serb returnees have been facing in FBiH and the desecration of tombstones in Orthodox cemeteries confirm that the policy of persecution and war crimes has not been defeated within the federal institutions, noting that it is high time for those responsible to be punished.

"Unfortunately, we are witnessing people parading with wartime flags, primarily in villages and settlements inhabited by Serb returnees in four Western Krajina municipalities. But we also see tombstones being desecrated in places where, unfortunately, there are hardly any Serbs left," Špirić said. He believes that it is no longer enough just to hear words of condemnation from FBiH, but that those responsible for such behaviour must be brought to justice and held accountable. At the Orthodox cemetery in the village of Pečuj, located two kilometers from Zenica downtown, 60 gravestones were recently desecrated. After unknown perpetrator/s broke and damaged around 60 crosses and gravestones at the Pečuj Orthodox cemetery in Zenica, on September 14, a convoy carrying wartime flags of the so-called Army of BiH passed through Serb returnee villages in the municipality of Bosanski Petrovac, chanting "Allahu Akbar". Bosanski Petrovac is one of 13 Western Krajina municipalities that were attacked by members of the HVO and the 5th Corps of the so-called Army of BiH during the war.