'Crnadak condemns Sarajevo media for reporting a story first published by global media'

By Armin Aljović

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Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Igor Crnadak condemned the terrorist attack on two mosques in New Zealand, and also condemned the Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to that country, Mirza Hajrić, because he linked the terrorist attack to the “crime in Srebrenica and to BiH.”

Crnadak said: “The terrorist attack on two mosques in New Zealand is a monstrous crime committed against people who were praying peacefully. The brutality and perfidy of this terrorist attack should remind us that the fight against all forms of terrorism must never cease,” after which he also referred to the statements of Mirza Hajrić, BiH Ambassador to Australia and New Zealand. “Ambassador Mirza Hajrić’s statement linking the terrorist attack in New Zealand to the crime in Srebrenica and to BiH is disgusting and directed against coexistence in BiH, as evidenced by the anti-Serb hysteria that the statement produced in parts of the Sarajevo media. It is dangerous and very irresponsible to link the insane act of a disturbed and sick person to an entire nation in the way Ambassador Hajrić did. I call on all people in BiH, both in the Republika Srpska and in the Federation of BiH, to condemn this terrorist attack and to sincerely and peacefully sympathize with the families of the victims.”

In fact, that New Zealand terrorist attack on two mosques spilled over into Bosnia and Herzegovina after Hajrić had previously stated for N1 Television that the killer was white and born in Australia, and that during the live broadcast posted on social media, on his way to the mosques where he committed the massacre, he listened to “songs by Serbian nationalists mentioning Radovan Karadžić, who should lead the Serbs.”

There is no doubt that the terrorist attack on the mosques cannot be connected to the Serbian people, just as there is no doubt that Minister Crnadak’s condemnations are not related to sincerity in reconciling the peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Crnadak accused the Sarajevo media of anti-Serb hysteria, even though the news that the terrorist listened to a song about Radovan Karadžić before the massacre was first reported by media in Serbia, among the first being Telegraf, under the headline “The terrorist prepared for the massacre with a song about Karadžić: A minute before massacring 49 people, a song from Krajina was playing in the car.” Global media reported much earlier that the terrorist had written the name of Miloš Obilić, a hero from Serbian poetry who participated in the Battle of Kosovo Field in 1389, as well as other names from Serbian history, such as Emperor Lazar, whom Obilić served and who was killed in battles with the Ottomans, on the weapons he used to kill.

If Crnadak were committed to coexistence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he would condemn, for example, the gathering of the Ravna Gora Chetnik movement, who last Sunday sang in the center of Višegrad, “There will be hell and the Drina river will run bloody again, here come the Chetniks from the Serbian mountains.” Numerous domestic and international organizations have warned that it is a short step from parades to bloodshed, but Crnadak, it seems, has assessed that the parading of Chetniks in the same place where they committed murders in the last two wars somehow enriches the cultural heritage of the eastern parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. For coexistence in BiH, before condemning some New Zealand lunatic, we need Crnadak’s condemnation of domestic fascists.