Bratunac: SDA Councilors Voted for Miladin Jokić, Suspected of Crimes Against Bosniaks

SDA councilors in the Bratunac Municipal Assembly, Ćazim Jusupović, Sead Mehmedović, Fehim Smailović and Zaib  Zahirović voted for Miladin Jokić to be elected Vice-President of the Assembly, reports the Patria news agency.

Jokić, a pre-war policeman, is well known to the people of Bratunac. Several years ago, he was arrested and an investigation was opened against him for crimes committed in Glogova and Hranča near Bratunac in May 1992.

-It is sad that some individuals, at any cost, choosing between principles and values, choose the armchair. This was shown by the SDA councilors giving their vote to a man suspected of participating in the killing of their relatives and neighbors.

Those who voted did not consider the feelings of their first colleague in the party. Former councilor, and now member of the Executive Board of SDA Bratunac, Hiba Ramić, publicly stated on FTV that Miladin Jokić took her husband Adem in front of their family home and that all trace of him has been lost since, while her colleagues reward the same Jokić with a position in the Bratunac Municipal Assembly, says Edin Ikanović, coordinator of the Coalition First March Bratunac, for the Patria news agency.

-With this act, they showed that they certainly did not think about the better position of Bosniak returnees in Bratunac, but only about their personal interests. I do not know how they will explain this procedure to the people who gave them their vote to represent them, and I am sure they did not give them their vote to support such people and reward them for everything they did in the past, concludes Ikanović.

Miladin Jokić was identified by Miroslav Deronjić in his confession before the Hague Tribunal as one of the key organizers and liaison officers with the so-called paramilitary units from Serbia. Members of these units committed the most serious crimes in Bratunac.