Duratović in an open letter to the people of Prijedor: Will we remain silent and give wind to the hooligans?

Instead of "sharp reactions" to the glorification of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić in Prijedor last night, "condemnations" of the act, organizers and participants of the parade Mirsad Duratović, President of the Prijedor City Assembly, sent an open letter to his fellow citizens in Prijedor.

"My dear people of Prijedor,

I could ask 30 questions this morning... and 130 more... but I only need one answer.

Will Prijedor, through silence and inaction, give "wind to the back" of various hooligans who still want to turn Prijedor into a black spot on the map of humanity, isolate us from the rest of the progressive processes that lead to a better future for us and our children, and through their hooliganism lead to all of us in Prijedor living worse and in insecurity in our city?

I expect that the competent institutions, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor's Office in Prijedor, will retrieve recordings from all video surveillance cameras from banks, shops, boutiques, and official police and City of Prijedor cameras located along the route of the convoy, identify the perpetrators, and that the Prijedor District Public Prosecutor's Office (OJT) will classify this parade as the criminal offense of "public incitement and instigation of violence and hatred".

I ask you:

1. Do you know that my fifteen-year-old brother was killed by a member of the RS Ministry of Internal Affairs on July 20, 1992, in his native Bišćani?

2. Do you know that my father was killed by members of the intervention unit of the Prijedor police on July 20, 1992, in our native Bišćani, at his doorstep?

3. Do you know that my grandfather and grandmother were killed by members of the RS Ministry of Internal Affairs and the RS Army on July 20, 1992, in Bišćani, in the yard of their family home?

4. Do you know that some members of the RS Ministry of Internal Affairs and the RS Army killed 47 of my Duratović relatives in 1992?

5. Do you know that some members of the RS Ministry of Internal Affairs and the RS Army killed 17 children in Bišćani on July 20, 1992, and a total of 102 in Prijedor?

6. Do you know that some members of the RS Ministry of Internal Affairs and the RS Army raped and killed women in Bišćani on July 20, 1992?

7. Do you know that some members of the RS Ministry of Internal Affairs and the RS Army killed 258 civilians in Bišćani on July 20, 1992?

8. Do you know that none of these crimes have been prosecuted?

9. Do you know if my brother's killer is parading today in the ranks of the RS Ministry of Internal Affairs in Banja Luka while the crowd applauds the parade?

10. Do you know that over 50 members of the RS Ministry of Internal Affairs and the RS Army from Prijedor have been convicted of war crimes in Prijedor to date, that proceedings are underway for over 30 members, that investigations are ongoing for many, and that new arrests and trials are to follow?

11. Do you know that 3176 civilians of non-Serb nationality were killed in Prijedor and that they were exhumed from over 500 locations?

12. Regardless of the verdicts, even if there were none, does the (in)human Mladić, who commanded these units, deserve glorification or condemnation?

Do you know that even in the hardest times of 1992, some members of the RS Ministry of Internal Affairs and Army, people of Prijedor, helped and saved their fellow citizens from camps?

Let us not allow today, in peacetime, such hooligans, who do not wish well to our Prijedor, to destroy all that we have built in the last twenty years on establishing coexistence and reconciliation in our city," Duratović stated.