Due to the appointment of a Bosniak as BHMAC director, SDP Banja Luka under Vojin Mijatović's control demands withdrawal from the coalition

(Patria) - Due to the refusal of Zukan Helez and Sevlid Hurtić to appoint Milan Komljenović from Banja Luka as head of BHMAC, the SDP branch from RS, backed by Vojin Mijatović, has requested the termination of the coalition at the BiH level.

They claim they do not want to be part of the “Bosniak representation”. Vojin Mijatović’s associate, Saša Grbić, informed the leadership of the party about the positions of SDP Banja Luka by writing a letter in ekavian dialect, reports Istraga.ba.

“Dear comrades,” began the letter from Mijatović’s successor in SDP Banja Luka, “we have been silent for a long time in the hope that certain things would change, but unfortunately, we are sinking deeper and deeper. The Council of Ministers of BiH was formed in such a way that we had to swallow the appointment of Selvid Hurtić, which resulted in us in RS losing a ministerial position in the Government of RS and the loss of a club position in the National Assembly of RS. We were asked not to react then, and we considered it important to form state government.

After that, and up until today, all SDP BiH cadres appointed at the state level are Bosniaks. In parallel, Hurtić, with the consent of our ministers, is massively hiring SDA Bosniaks in state institutions, and on top of all that, a “Bosniak” coordination is being formed, which our ministers agree to and participate in.”

Saša Grbić praised Naša stranka in the same letter.

“On the other hand, Naša stranka has no problem with this; their minister is from the ‘others’ category, and the deputy minister is from the Serb people. All of this sends a catastrophic message to our (SDP’s) membership in RS and raises the question of whether we are a Bosniak or a Bosnian-Herzegovinian party. We will no longer be silent and in the coming period, we will publicly distance ourselves from the government at the state level and demand the resignations of our ministers in the Council of Ministers of BiH.

If we wanted to be part of the Bosniak representation, we would be members of SDA, not SDP BiH. This message is available to the members of the SDP BiH presidency, and if it becomes public, it means someone from this group sent it to the media; we certainly will not do that. Next week, in accordance with the Statute of SDP BiH, we will hold a meeting and officially request the bodies to withdraw from the state government. This is a red line; we feel like Bosnians and Herzegovinians. If we wanted to be only Serbs, we would have joined SNSD, not SDP,” Grbić wrote.

According to Istraga’s information, Mijatović and Grbić were trying to push Milan Komljenović, the wartime president of the Crisis Staff of Skender Vakuf, who was a witness in The Hague against Radovan Karadžić, for the position of director of BHMAC (Mine Action Centre).

However, the Minister for Human Rights, Sevlid Hurtić, received instructions from the SDP Vice-President and Minister of Defence of BiH, Zukan Helez, not to appoint Komljenović, but to appoint a Bosniak, Enis Horozović from Bugojno, to that position. After that, Saša Grbić also posted in the SDP leadership’s Viber group, warning that he did not want to be part of the “Bosniak representation”.

Istraga.ba contacted Vojin Mijatović, who told us that he “does not interfere in personnel policy at the BiH level.” When asked directly if he knew Milan Komljenović, Mijatović replied – “You know Sevlid Hurtić too.”