Mostar is terrorized by those who have been indulged for years

According to "Slobodna Bosna" sources, all those arrested and held for questioning are members of "Ultras" and they all participated in numerous incidents and riots (including the aforementioned vandalism in Fejićeva Street last August) that have shaken the capital of Herzegovina in recent months and years.

Last night, Mostar was the scene of a serious incident, a mass conflict initiated by members, or rather hooligans, of the fan group "Ultras" who support the Football Club "Zrinjski". This is not the first incident caused by "Ultras" in recent months, but it is the most severe to date in terms of intensity, mass participation, and consequences. To recall, on August 8 last year, on the day the city derby between "Zrinjski" and "Velež" was supposed to be played, about fifty members of "Ultras", equipped with sticks and pyrotechnics, crossed the Old Bridge and entered Fejićeva Street where they left a trail of destruction in shops and craft businesses. The police intervened with a delay, after which the vandals fled. Behind them were broken shop windows, one of which was set on fire by a flare, and one of the workers was injured in a physical assault.

MOSTAR EMERGES FOR THOSE WHO HATE IT

Eight months later, last night in the night hours, the same scenario repeated itself, with almost the same actors. Members of "Ultras" began their hooligan and vandalistic rampage by interrupting a football match played between "Zrinjski" and "Sarajevo", throwing flares and other pyrotechnic devices from outside the stadium onto the field (matches are played without spectators due to the coronavirus epidemic). They did not disperse even after the match ended (the result was a draw, 1-1), but continued in a convoy of 7-8 cars towards the eastern part of the city and shortly before midnight (despite the curfew from 9 PM) arrived at the intersection on the main road towards Lučki Most. After the "pumped up" "Ultras" got off the bridge, they headed to the well-known establishment "Kod Denje" where they began their destructive spree, breaking everything in front of them. This is where the first conflict occurred with several local residents, to whom an increasing number of residents of this part of Mostar joined as the fight continued.

Soon, after becoming outnumbered, the "Ultras" began to panic and flee through the alleys of Donja Mahala. Scattered into smaller groups, they tried to escape from the local residents, who were joined by members of "Red Army”, fans of "Velež". Stones and flares flew, and a real street war was waged in the alleys of Donja Mahala. The fiercest fighting was in the well-known Sivrića alley where the "Ultras" fell into a trap and frantically sought an exit. One group, while fleeing, broke into the family home of a prominent Mostar resident, Tarik Mahmutagić, a judge at the Court in Mostar, located at B. Đukića Street number 5. They began to frantically break furniture and behave vandalistically towards the terrified residents. According to eyewitnesses, this group, consisting of Ivan Drežnjak, Marin Lončar, Marin Krezić, and Davor Drežnjak, was surrounded by a larger group of "Red Army" members, and in a brutally violent fight, they inflicted serious injuries on one of the attackers of the house. According to our information, this was Ivan Drežnjak, born in 1993, who was urgently transferred to the SKB in Mostar. The violence on the streets of Mostar was stopped by members of the Mostar Police Administration. The streets of Donja Mahala emptied, and a heavy, uncertain, and threatening peace prevailed.

NONE OF THOSE ARRESTED REMEMBER THE WAR!

The Mostar Police Administration announced this morning that ten "rioters", i.e., persons who participated in the riots, were apprehended last night. According to "Slobodna Bosna" sources, all those arrested and held for questioning are members of "Ultras" and they all participated in numerous incidents and riots (including the aforementioned vandalism in Fejićeva Street last August) that have shaken the capital of Herzegovina in recent months and years. The names of the hooligans arrested last night during the clashes in Donja Mahala are: Martin Lončar (1993), Armin Karalić (1999), Mirsad Murati (2002), Nikola Crnjac, Joško Milić (1997), Luka Krezić (1994), Damir Drežnjak (1997), and Renato Zelčić (1999).

The police found two cars parked in front of the bridge, which were used by "Ultras" before the start of the hooligan rampage. In one of the cars, a "Passat", four wooden sticks, one meter long, were found, which further indicates that the entire operation of the fan hooligans was planned and "logistically" well-secured. The owner of that car is Josip (Lucijan) Milić.

Reactions to the severe violence that shook Mostar last night are coming from all sides. Residents of Donja Mahala, who were the first to be targeted by hooligan barbarism, point out that the attack occurred during Ramadan and should be qualified as inciting religious and national hatred. Aner Žuljević, an official of SDP BiH, accused the police of failing to respond to the incident. "When you have years of anarchy in the HNK Ministry of Internal Affairs, then savages lead the way...", he said, claiming that "these idiots are just executors of sports policy on the ground."

Žuljević is not the only one connecting the fan group "Ultras" with parts of the government in Mostar. Those who are better acquainted with the situation in this city claim they are the "army of HDZ" and that they do nothing on their own. If they did not have political protection, these hooligans would already be in prison just for what they did last summer destroying Fejićeva Street, they say in Mostar. The SDA stated that this fan group "recklessly enters carefully selected parts of Mostar with the aim of causing unrest, destroying property, but also of systematically and dangerously disrupting overall relations in the city."

Mario Kordić, the mayor of Mostar, strongly condemned "last night's hooligan rampage and the attack on private property and citizens in the Donja Mahala settlement." He asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to inform the public as soon as possible about last night's incidents and to punish all perpetrators.

Kordić is convinced that "such incidents will never happen again in Mostar."

A serious challenge for the mayor, the police, and all other institutions in the city is expected in about ten days when the "hot" city derby between "Velež" and "Zrinjski" is played in Mostar. Will the ringleaders of violence and vandalism, the leaders of "Ultras", face this football event on the streets of Mostar, or where they have long belonged - in prison?!

Source: Slobodna Bosna