Who wants to erase nationality, language, and religion for 121,280 residents and give them the status of "unknown"?

A press conference was held at the building of the Federal Statistical Office to discuss yesterday's session of the Central Census Bureau, where there was no agreement on contentious issues regarding the processing of the 2013 Census results, writes the BH News Agency Patria.

This institution points out that yesterday's session also presented a proposal to accept the data processing program, meaning that the 121,280 census forms currently lacking agreement would be granted resident status, but the data on ethnic affiliation, language, and religion for these forms would be altered and given the status of "unknown."

As explained by Majda Mušić, spokesperson for the Federal Statistical Office, who read out the press release, the IMO did not have new recommendations, but rather individual members of the CPB, which the leadership of the Federal Statistical Office disagrees with. Responding to a question about whether the Director of the Agency for Statistics of BiH, Velimir Jukić, members of the EU Delegation, and the Director of the RS Statistical Office, Radmila Čičković, are meeting behind closed doors, she stated she had no comment. Patria unofficially learns that such a scenario has been prepared.

- The Federal Office did not support the mentioned proposal because it contradicts the provisions of the Census Law, European recommendations, and the IMO team's recommendations. The Federal Office is committed to the EU path and therefore fully accepted the IMO recommendations in accordance with the law, as determined in Brussels on 17.12.2015 - state the Office.

Incidentally, the Deputy Director of the Agency for Statistics of BiH, Fadil Fatić, also warned about such a scenario, stating that erasing data from these census forms would be a "criminal offense."