PRIJEDOR New neo-Nazi and right-wing graffiti, prosecutor finds no criminal offense

SARAJevo, (Patria) - In the Prijedor settlement of Tukovi, which is predominantly inhabited by returning Bosniak population, offensive graffiti with neo-Nazi or far-right symbols have appeared.

The duty prosecutor concluded that there are no elements of a criminal offense, it was confirmed for the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIRN BiH).

The inscription "Nož, žica..." (Knife, wire...), which is most often used in the chant "Nož, žica, Srebrenica" - which glorifies the mass killings of Bosniaks and the genocide committed in July 1995 - as well as inscriptions and symbols of two far-right organizations, "Krv i čast" (Blood and Honour) and "Borba 18" (Combat 18), were written on the flood defense wall on the left bank of the Sana River in Tode Švrakića Street, while a Nazi "swastika" was drawn on a devastated Bosniak house in the nearby Titogradska Street.

BIRN BiH has previously written about the graffiti of these organizations in Prijedor, which have been declared terrorist organizations and banned in some countries.

The Prijedor Police Administration states that police officers learned on January 5 this year that several different graffiti had been written in the village of Tukovi in Prijedor.

The prosecutor of the District Public Prosecutor's Office of Prijedor was informed of everything, who stated that in this specific case there are no elements of a criminal offense, says Zvezdana Alendarević, spokesperson for the Prijedor Police Administration.

Police officers are continuing to determine the circumstances of the graffiti being written, she says.

Dragoslav Kabić, head of the Department for Traffic, Communal Affairs and Environmental Protection and Property-Housing Affairs in the Prijedor City Administration, confirmed for BIRN BiH that the police had informed them about the graffiti in Tukovi and that an order had been issued to the company Komunalne usluge Prijedor to remove/repaint them.

Only about twenty meters away from the drawn graffiti is a house with a memorial plaque erected in 2015, on the occasion of the 23rd anniversary of the suffering of the Čaušević family.

The plaque states that six members of this family who lived in that house were executed from it on August 19, 1992: a mother and her four sons, and a minor grandson.

A Prijedor resident living in Tode Švrakića Street says that he often encounters offensive graffiti since returning to Prijedor. He believes that young people, exposed to bad content on the internet and TV channels, are responsible for them.

"It is sad that our children grew up on the internet, on hatred. They have no sense of respect or fear," says this interlocutor, who asked not to be named.

Not wanting to wait for the authorities to repaint the graffiti, some returnees decided to remove them themselves.

"As soon as I heard that a swastika was drawn on my cousin's devastated house in Tukovi, my husband bought spray paint, came from another part of Prijedor, and added lines to the graffiti to mask the 'swastika'," says a female returnee from Prijedor, also not wanting to be named.

Graffiti were also drawn on a nearby flood defense wall. In the last two months of 2021, offensive graffiti appeared in Prijedor on three occasions.

On the International Day of Tolerance, November 16, in several locations in the settlement of Raškovac, in the immediate vicinity of the martyrs' cemetery, a figure resembling General Mladić and the inscription "Ratko Mladić" were painted.

On several locations in the very center of Prijedor on December 3, graffiti were painted in red, blue, and white, with the inscription "Serbian hero!" and a figure that reminds citizens of the life-sentenced general of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) Ratko Mladić.

An offensive graffiti appeared on December 22 in Majora Milana Tepića Street, in the center of Prijedor. On the fence or wall of the City Stadium, it read "Ratko Mladić" and "Young Balija runs through the field, I catch him and slaughter him!".

The duty prosecutor of the District Public Prosecutor's Office of Prijedor considered that in the first two cases there were no elements of a criminal offense, while in the third case it was assessed that it was a criminal offense of "public incitement and instigation of violence and hatred".

All these graffiti have been repainted.

At the regular session of the Prijedor City Assembly on December 3, 2021, the proposal "Action Plan for the Prevention of Incidents and Criminal Offenses Committed Out of Hatred and Prejudice in the Area of Prijedor for the Period 2022-2026" was adopted.

BIRN BiH wrote in 2020 about the inscriptions and symbols of the right-wing organizations "Krv i čast" (Blood and Honour) and "Borba 18" (Combat 18) which were written on buildings in the center of Prijedor, along with the address of an internet blog promoting the development of neo-Nazism in Republika Srpska (RS). "Blood and Honour", whose goal was to spread "white music", was the basis for the formation of the group "Combat 18". "Combat 18" was created by violent hooligans in London and has since carried out violent campaigns.

"Blood and Honour" and "Combat 18" operate together in many places, with "Combat 18" usually being "the militant wing of the 'Blood and Honour' group", BIRN BiH previously wrote. Germany has banned these organizations, and Canada has gone so far as to include them on its list of terrorist organizations due to violent attacks by members of this group in the USA and some European countries.

BIRN BiH wrote that some supporters of the local fan group "Alcohol boys" had previously displayed right-wing symbols, and the group had on several occasions displayed photos of Ratko Mladić.