(CAMPAIGN UNDERWAY) CEC must prosecute Dodik and SNSD: Inciting hatred is not political speech, but a criminal offense

By Amina Čorbo-Zećo

Milorad Dodik's speech in East Sarajevo, filled with nationalist outbursts and open insults towards Bosniaks, is further proof that in Bosnia and Herzegovina, hatred goes unpunished.

Words like “no one lies more than a Turk” and calls to “defend the city from Islamization” are not only shameful but constitute classic hate speech, the kind that would be subject to immediate prosecutorial action in any serious country.

But in Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is no reaction. And there likely won't be, especially no judicial outcome.

After all, what can be expected from the BiH Prosecutor's Office and Chief Prosecutor Milanko Kajganić, who, along with Vedran Mijović, previously closed the investigation against Dodik and other political actors for undermining the constitutional order? For them, the attempt to undermine the constitutional order ended with the withdrawal of laws in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska!

It must always be remembered that the Constitutional Court of BiH had previously declared those same laws invalid.

In a country where court rulings are openly denied, secession is threatened, and state symbols are ridiculed, it is difficult to believe that anyone in the judiciary will dare to prosecute the incitement of national hatred. However, we certainly expect criminal complaints.

And the laws are clear. Inciting national, racial, or religious hatred is a criminal offense. Clearly defined. Furthermore, the Election Law of BiH prohibits the use of language that can “incite or encourage violence or the spread of hatred”.

However, since that law provides for sanctions only within the scope of an election campaign and only in the 30-day period before elections, Dodik and SNSD should face consequences, and in that regard, complaints are expected to be filed with the Central Election Commission (CEC).

In a normal country, such speech would be enough for a politician to face the law, and for institutions to show that they exist to protect citizens, not the powerful. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dodik knows he can say anything without fear of punishment. Because the system allows him to.

This is how a new reality is created, one in which hate speech has become a political strategy, and the silence of institutions is complicity.

And while the BiH Prosecutor's Office continues to sleep under the weight of its own cowardice, Bosnia and Herzegovina slides deeper into a zone of moral and institutional paralysis. Because when a state does not punish hatred, it is essentially approving it.