Rijaset condemns attack: Hatidža mustered the strength to place a flower on Vučić, showing greatness and strength

Rijaset of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina issued a public statement regarding yesterday's incident at the Memorial Center in Potočari, which the news agency Patria transmits in full. 

- Rijaset of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina strongly condemns the physical and verbal assault on Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić at the Memorial Center in Potočari. It is deplorable what individuals did in Potočari, trampling on the inviolability of space and time, trampling on the interests of genocide victims and the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Moreover, they seemed intent on humiliating the martyrs, providing an alibi for those from 1995 who carried out the genocide, and those from 2015 who deny it.

Rijaset reminds these individuals, and all others, that the Council of Muftis of the Islamic Community has declared the area of Srebrenica a place of martyrdom, and therefore everyone who comes and stays in this area must preserve the dignity of the martyrdom and behave accordingly. Those who come to pay tribute to the victims must enjoy full security and dignified treatment.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić was welcomed as a guest by the mothers of Srebrenica on July 11, 2015, at the Memorial Center in Potočari. They placed a Srebrenica flower on his lapel, the most honorable memory they hold in their hands since the day Serbian soldiers and police killed their children and husbands. He received the flower from the hand of Hatidža Mehmedović, a mother who lost her entire family and remained alone to live her solitude.

Yes, Hatidža mustered the strength to place the flower with her own hand, thereby showing unimaginable greatness and strength in overcoming the wartime statements and activities of the Serbian Prime Minister, and the ability to turn new pages in mutual relations. Although Vučić came to Srebrenica without a "wreath of recognition of genocide" in his hand, he returned from there with a wreath of reconciliation from the hands of the mothers of genocide victims. These facts must not be ignored.

Rijaset of the Islamic Community believes that, regardless of yesterday's incident, Vučić and other representatives of Serbia should come again to the Memorial Center in Potočari, where they will be shown due respect, but not empty-handed, but with a "wreath of recognition of genocide." And if they do not do so, let them keep the wreath of reconciliation that Hatidža Mehmedović gave to Vučić.