Why did the agreement Izetbegović-Halilović on political murders fail?

Exactly two years ago, Bakir Izetbegovic, SDA leader and Sefer Halilovic, BPS leader, agreed on their joint position to the unsolved murders and terrorist acts. Their focus rested on two cases – the murder of Sefer's wife Mediha Halilovic, and the damage inflicted by an explosive device onto the grave of Alija Izetbegovic, the first chairman of the Presidency BiH, which was categorized as a terrorist act.  

We are requesting an efficient approach to these issues, to strip off the stigma and collaterals and to finally find out who is behind that. I'm ready to put in use all the existing mechanisms and, if necessary, create a new one in order to clear these things out, Izetbegovic said and Halilovic endorsed him.

There are three murders that have been present in federal media for over 20 years, as murders with political motive. Besides Mediha Halilovic, the murders of police officials Nedzad Ugljen and Jozo Leutar have also been categorized as political assassinations.

Hundreds of texts have been written on the topic, however, the inquest is still open. It has been 20 years since Sefer Halilovic brought criminal charges for his wife's murder. The prosecutor's office has not done anything to solve these cases. Same questions about the murders are being raised over and over again, although the limitation period has expired.

After the agreement was made, it seemed as if all the past misunderstandings were erased. Numerous brutal attacks in Halilovic's books against late Alija Izetbegovic, in which he called him a 'traitor' and a 'fundamentalist' seemed to have been simply forgotten about. It was also forgotten that Alija Izetbegovic referred to Sefer Halilovic as a 'man who lacks courage'.

The Izetbegovic – Halilovic agreement raised the expectations in terms of work of the Prosecutor's office and, generally speaking, solving the cases of murder. Unfortunately, two years later, as was the case 20 years before, there are no indications that anything significant will start to appear. The prosecutions keep silent, and so do Bakir and Sefer.  

The politics had to respond by finding the culprits at any cost, because every murder, if unsolved, formally gets categorized as a political murder.

News agency Patria had an access to a quite interesting testifying in the Halilovic case, which can also be traced in the prosecution's file relating to the inquest.

The shell that killed Halilovic's spouse and his brother-in-law, is one of hundreds of thousands of shells which fell on Sarajevo, when more than ten thousand of its citizens were killed. If there is one percent of possibility that this may be a murder planned and executed by someone, that could only be Sefer Halilovic.

In support of his testimony, the witness stated the fact that 'at that time, Sefer Halilovic was in bad relations with his late wife and he lived with another woman, which could have been a motive for murder'. The witness also said that Halilovic was a JNA officer and an artillery expert, so he was equipped with 'knowledge for such an act'.

Records of telephone conversation between Sefer Halilovic and his wife Mediha, which could be heard in the media, revealed that Sefer Halilovic did not go to his family apartment where his wife and children lived for two months.

Bakir Izetbegovic said that the wartime in BiH saw political assassinations. HE categorized the murders of Nedzad Ugljen and Jozo Leutar as political? Then he claimed that SDA was not afraid of any inquest. For twenty + years, Sarajevo media have been writing about these three murders more than about the murder of 11,000 citizens of besieged Sarajevo.

Back then, Izetbegovic and Halilovic also agreed to create joint government at the level of Sarajevo canton. It was obvious that their agreement meant some kind of reconciliation on the account of the two dead persons. Calls to inquest by these two were an attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the government. Last two years in which the inquest has not made one single step further proves the point.

However, Sefer Halilovic and his BNN do not cease accusing and pointing finger at people, failing at the same time to utter one single word about lousy work of the prosecutor's office and its responsibility. Probably because the lie can be well utilized on the political level, while the truth would ruin the opportunity for political manipulations.

Building political career on a death is unacceptable and entirely inappropriate.