Dizdar in Višća shoulder to shoulder with defendant Vasić: A path of return or a path of oblivion?

(Patria) - In the returnee settlement of Gornja Višća in Živinice, a local road was asphalted today. The project, funded by the Federal Ministry of Displaced Persons and Refugees for returnees, means much better communication, safer and easier access to the village, and easier everyday life. Any infrastructure in returnee areas is a sign that the state, at least partially, is fulfilling its promise of sustainable return.

However, instead of the event being remembered for the joy of the returnees, the opening photographs also included a man against whom proceedings are being conducted before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for war crimes. Dragomir Vasić, originally from Gornja Višća, is accused of participating, together with other officials, in the forced displacement of 4,000 Bosniak civilians and the illegal detention of 600 of them in the Zvornik area in 1992.



He was previously acquitted in the proceedings conducted against him for participation in the genocide in Srebrenica.

It is not the first time that individuals with such serious indictments have appeared in the public space, shoulder to shoulder with elected officials. But each new appearance testifies to the normalization of what should never be normal.

Did Minister Nerin Dizdar (SDP) know who was standing in his company? If not, that is a problem because it shows a lack of seriousness. If yes, that is an even bigger problem because it shows complete insensitivity towards returnees. The presence of the president of the SDP Živinice, Dževad Hadžić, further compromises the political environment in which parties talk about anti-fascism, justice, and return, and then smile and pose alongside those accused of war crimes.

Vasić's presence at the opening sends a message that the state building roads is simultaneously relativizing justice. That trials, indictments, and victims are less important than political photographs.

And so the question remains: where does the road through Gornja Višća actually lead – towards sustainable return or towards yet another oblivion of the victims?

(A.Č.Z.)