LINTA: GRAFFITI ON PREMISES OF SERBIAN COMPANIES IN SARAJEVO IS A HATE CRIME

BELGRADE, MAY 16 /SRNA/ - Spraying graffiti and pouring paint on the shopfronts of business premises owned by companies from Serbia in the centre of Sarajevo constitutes a hate crime aimed at intimidating and driving out their owners and the small number of Serbs, said the president of the Alliance of Serbs from the Region, Miodrag Linta.

Linta said that this act of vandalism should be strongly condemned, first and foremost by representatives of the institutions in Sarajevo. He stressed that it is important for the competent authorities to identify and punish the perpetrators as soon as possible in accordance with the law, to send a strong message that ethnic and religious hatred and intolerance are not acceptable or permitted. “I welcome the decision of the cantonal police to qualify the said criminal offence as incitement to national, racial and religious hatred, division or intolerance,” said Linta.