Katanic defended Karadzic and removed mosque ruins: Today he celebrates the expulsion of Bosniaks from Srebrenica with priest Mladenovic

By: Amra Vrabac

After the deputy mayor of Srebrenica, Hamdija Fejzic, was dismissed on November 23rd with the votes of Serb councilors, and SDS's Momcilo Cvjetinovic was elected in his place, a decisive reaction from the OHR was absent. A terse statement calling on the Municipal Assembly of Srebrenica to fulfill its constitutional and legal obligations remained just words on paper. For the OHR, the dismissal of Hamdija Fejzic is a wrong signal, and that is all the concern of the international community amounted to.

Cvjetinovic officially moved into the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Srebrenica yesterday, but only after it was "consecrated."

"With the consecration of the new workspace and the blessing of the Srebrenica parish priest, protopresbyter Aleksandar Mladenovic, in the presence of his party colleagues Dane and Dragan, Prof. Cvjetinovic began a new mission and service for the good of the people in Srebrenica," it was announced on Facebook.

Although such a practice is not appropriate for a secular society, in the BiH entity of RS, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has its own patron saint's day, as do a significant number of other institutions, schools are full of icons and religious symbols, and offices are taken over after blessings from religious officials.

And who is Dane Katanic, who is in the photos with Cvjetinovic and the protopresbyter?

Dane Katanic was the president of the municipality of Skelani when the Army of RS occupied Srebrenica in July 1995 and committed genocide. In 2013, he was a defense witness for Radovan Karadzic, who was sentenced to life imprisonment and found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws and customs of war.

In documents to which Patria had access, Katanic, as president of the Executive Board of the Municipal Assembly of Srebrenica in 1997, signed a decision on the removal of ruins and the arrangement of areas in Srebrenica, which included the remains of three destroyed mosques, as well as numerous destroyed facilities of the Bosniaks of Srebrenica.

And while a criminal proceeding is expected to begin against Professor of the Islamic Pedagogical Faculty in Bihac, theologian and efendi Muharem Štulanović before the Basic Court in Banja Luka for calling the RS a "genocidal creation," precisely in the place where genocide was committed, where 8,372 Srebrenicans were killed and where war criminals live and work freely, members of the Serbian Orthodox Church are consecrating offices and blessing the obvious discrimination and persecution of Bosniaks.

After the end of the aggression against BiH, this is the first time that there is no Bosniak in the leadership of the municipality of Srebrenica. However, for High Representative Christian Schmidt, this is not a burning issue. He is more concerned that Dodik and no other RS official want to receive him and recognize his legitimacy. Schmidt is more concerned about how the court case against Dodik will end, in which Schmidt will be called as a witness. While this charade is ongoing, the Bosniaks of Srebrenica are reliving 1995.

Documents signed by Dane Katanic on the removal of the remains of destroyed mosques in Srebrenica (Photo: Patria)