Bandić: Where have the citizens disappeared while our children are being killed on the streets of Sarajevo!?

Muamer Bandić, MP in the KS Assembly and member of the GV of the Party of BiH

Where are and what are all those citizens doing who used to regularly protest because of the deteriorating security situation in Sarajevo? Where are and what are all those "independent" analysts writing today who, with their shouting, called for protests while today's rulers were in opposition? And where has the voice of the people in Sarajevo disappeared to?

I have no intention of turning this case into a political story, but it is noticeable that since we have had a new government in Sarajevo Canton, it is as if we have lost citizens and independent analysts, and the people have lost their voice.

While our children are dying on the streets in sporadic clashes, there is no one left here to raise their voice against the government, which in 6 years of rule has failed to improve the security situation in Sarajevo. Moreover, the security situation has significantly worsened during this time, but all those who were once very vocal about this issue are silent.

The night before last, we had another in a series of tragic and horrifying incidents in Sarajevo. The act of murder itself is the product of a trivial argument. The crime is trivial in how it all happened, that due to a trivial argument in traffic, firearms were used, and horrifying because the victim is a 19-year-old boy, someone's child who was not directly involved in that argument, but was sitting peacefully in the car. The victim in this case was in the wrong place at the wrong time and, for who knows how many times in the annals of Sarajevo's street crime, suffered for no fault of his own.

Sarajevo is silent in the meantime because once vocal citizens are now playing dead. Is it fear of the authorities or something else? The authorities are also playing dead, as if this trivial and horrifying crime happened on another continent, not on the streets of our city. And on streets that are their responsibility and where they are obliged to ensure public order and safety. As we can see from the series of deadly traffic rampages and frequent shootings in the city, there is NO security! And let's not forget that the Trojka (Trio) came to power largely by exploiting the same security failures of the previous government, and in their 6 years of rule, they have done nothing about it.

So, my dear fellow citizens, there will be no security, and there can be none, as long as those who rule have friends from the underworld and pose for photos with the heads of international drug cartels, their names are mentioned in the Sky application, and stories circulate in the bazaar that criminal organizations finance their election campaigns. As long as this is the case, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Sarajevo Canton will never be organized, equipped, and trained as it should be. And be sure that we will never see the government invest our money in an integrated public surveillance system for Sarajevo Canton, or in our security, simply because strengthening our security represents insecurity for their brothers and friends.

In all of this, I sincerely hope that the consciousness of our citizens has not disappeared and that our people have not lost their voice, and that we will find the strength to say that this cannot go on like this anymore! Just as we raised our voices for Denis, for Kemo, for Edita and Selma, for Azra and Alma, for Dženan, let's raise our voices tomorrow for Faris, because he is our child!