ATTACKS ON SERB RETURNEES CONTINUE UNABATED

SARAJEVO, JULY 26 /SRNA/ – Attacks on Serb returnees, their property, and religious sites in the Federation of BiH /FBiH/ continue unabated. The recent attack on a chapel at the Serbian Orthodox cemetery Karaula near Kakanj, along with dozens of similar incidents over the past year and a half, have gone without adequate response or identification of perpetrators.

In the Kakanj municipality alone, chapels in Krsti na Mošćanici and in Viduša above Bilješevo were broken into, the chapel at Plandište was stoned, and the cemetery in the village of Danci was desecrated. On July 18, the Cathedral Church of the Dormition of Theotokos in Tuzla was desecrated; perpetrators damaged the stand of Blessed Matrona of Moscow, broke into the church shop, and stole voluntary donations. Between the night of July 16 and 17, the car of the Čvoro family, Serb returnees, was set on fire in the yard of their home in the Rudnik neighbourhood of Mostar. On June 14 last year, another Serb, Drago Rupar, had his car set on fire in Mostar. In August last year, there was a series of attacks on Serb children and returnees in Mostar. The eighth such incident in 2024 occurred in the Baćevići neighbourhood, where attackers physically assaulted Serb children on a playground. Previously, unknown individuals had plastered the playground and nearby streets with swastikas, the Ustaše symbol “U,” and graffiti referencing the Croatian Defence Council /HVO/. In June, multiple gravestones were desecrated at the Serbian Orthodox cemetery in the village of Kovačići near Kladanj, which has previously also been a target of vandalism. In the village of Olovci, a wooden cross on land owned by a Serbian Orthodox family was repeatedly torn down. In January, Serb graves were desecrated in Kraljeva Voda. The abbot of the Karno Monastery near Srebrenica confirmed this, adding that federal media had falsely claimed it was a Bosniak cemetery. Several Orthodox tombstones were completely destroyed at the cemetery in the village of Tupkovići in the municipality of Živinice /FBiH/. Illegal logging of forests owned by Serbs has also been reported in areas around Bihać, Ozren, Petrovac, Livno, and locations near Sarajevo and Zenica. The fact that not only Serb returnees in FBiH but also Serbs from the region are targets is confirmed by a physical attack on high school students from Novi Sad, who were beaten with metal rods in Sarajevo in March. More recently, a young man wearing a "Delije" T-shirt /supporters of Red Star Belgrade/ was attacked in Tuzla downtown. Verbal attacks against Serbs in FBiH are also common, such as the incident on February 27 near the BiH Presidency building, where a man threatened Serbs from Pale and took photos of them.