Should the Sarajevo Canton MUP approve a protest rally for separatist Dodik and the arrival in Sarajevo of those who terrorized him in the nineties?

By: Rasim Belko

As if they already know what the Sarajevo Canton MUP's decision will be regarding their request, associations from the Republika Srpska entity are announcing eight thousand people at a protest in front of the BiH Prosecutor's Office and Court, in support of RS President Milorad Dodik due to the indictment filed against him.

The rally has already been announced to the competent Police Administration Novi Grad, NAP was told by the Sarajevo Canton MUP, and a decision will be made in accordance with positive legal regulations.

However, should the Sarajevo Canton MUP approve protests that will be attended by those who terrorized this city for four years of siege, and those whose heroes are Hague indictees Radovan Karadžić, Ratko Mladić, and further down the hierarchy, and those who follow Milorad Dodik, who abolished the legal operation of the BiH Constitutional Court in RS and announced the same for the BiH Court…

There are many questions in all of this, but one thing is perfectly clear – the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Sarajevo Canton should not issue a permit for a rally in support of a separatist, a Putin sympathizer, and a man who undermines the constitutional and legal order in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Sarajevo Canton MUP should not issue a permit even due to the fact that former generals of the VRS criminal army announced their arrival in Sarajevo, and there is no doubt that they will be opposed by those who stopped them in the nineties in their march on the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The eventual approval of such a rally carries a great risk of potential conflicts on the streets of Sarajevo, because it is difficult for the citizens of a city with Sarajevo's history to allow and want executioners who shelled the maternity hospital to walk their city.

Those executioners, and many are preparing for the rally, have no right to seek justice for anyone, because many of them are hiding from justice for what they did in the nineties, from Foča and Višegrad, through Sarajevo, Prijedor, Bosanska Krajina, to Srebrenica and Žepa…

Any explanation that they are seeking justice for Dodik and protection of Republika Srpska at the protests is meaningless. By allowing such a protest to be held, the Sarajevo Canton MUP would, in a way, side with those who claim that the indictment against separatist Dodik is actually an indictment against RS and the Serb people.

Should the leaders of the Sarajevo Canton MUP pretend to be blind to the fact that the protest is actually Dodik's creation, with which he is simultaneously attacking the BiH judiciary and waiting for any incident, which is not impossible, to amplify the narrative that Bosnia and Herzegovina is impossible, that there is no life with Muslims, and so on.

After all, should the Sarajevo Canton MUP allow a gathering under the flag of a man whose police arrest and punish for displaying the first flag of independent Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Dodik has introduced a system in RS that is a copy of North Korea, and he wants to bring members of the VRS, who almost destroyed this city, to Sarajevo, and to seek democracy there, which he extinguished in 49 percent of the occupied BiH territory.

This is a serious test for those who manage the Sarajevo Canton MUP, and the eventual approval of a rally for separatist Dodik could lead to consequences that exceed the capacity of the Sarajevo police.