Reis wrote to the BiH Presidency regarding attacks on returnees in RS

(Patria) - Today, the Reis-ul-ulema of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Husein ef. Kavazović, sent a letter to the members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BiH, in which he appeals to state institutions and judicial bodies to stop the malicious campaign of pressure and attacks on returnees and the Islamic Community in the Bosnian entity of RS. The office of the Reis-ul-ulema also informed the High Representative of the International Community in BiH, Mr. Valentin Inzko, the Head of the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the EU Special Representative in BiH, H.E. Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, and the embassies of the PIC member states of the letter's content.

The letter states:

"The unfortunate events that have occurred in the past few days in the RS entity have caused unrest among the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially among Bosniak returnees, who are members and adherents of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The parade of paramilitary Chetnik formations in Višegrad, at the same place where some of those lined up committed horrific crimes against innocent civilians, and the invocation of new crimes must not go unpunished, and members of the Islamic Community rightly expect that such a thing will never happen again anywhere in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Islamic Community has no information about the results of the investigation into the threats directly made on social networks to the imam from Bosanski Novi, Emir ef. Nuhić, and his family, in which a person whose identity is known to the police threatens the imam 'that he will rape his daughter and wife in the mosque'. Also, our public expects information about the attack on mosque premises in Prijedor when nationalist graffiti was painted.

The citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the adherents of the Islamic Community were particularly disturbed by yesterday's attack on Azrin Hodžić from Prijedor, which reminded all of us, especially the few returnees, of what innocent civilians experienced in that city and other Bosnian cities from 1992 to 1995. It is good that the perpetrator was apprehended promptly, but we expect the prosecution to treat the attack as a hate crime and that this will be an aggravating circumstance for the perpetrator and his masterminds in court. Failure to prosecute this and all similar attacks as hate crimes that carry a clear political message sends the wrong message that the restoration of coexistence in these areas is impossible and that criminals enjoy political support from individuals and institutions at some levels of government. That is why we were concerned by the information that at today's session of the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, some political options refused to at least unequivocally condemn the gathering in Višegrad organized by the Ravna Gora Chetnik Movement.

We hope and expect that the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as its RS entity, in accordance with their constitutional jurisdictions, will prosecute all actors of this malicious campaign, which increasingly resembles a well-thought-out undertaking with far-reaching consequences if we do not react adequately," the letter from Reis-ul-ulema Kavazović concludes.