Losing Srebrenica and Vukosavlje: Statehood day defenitively 'expelled' from the RS!

The Statehood day of Bosnia and Herzegovina is marked on 25 November each year. As usual, the holiday will not be marked in the Republika Srpska. This year, Srebrenica and Vukosavlje will be added to the list of the municipalities that deny the Bosnian statehood.

Until recent municipal elections, Vukosavlje and Srebrenica were the only municipalities in the RS with Bosniak mayors. Given the changes in the respective municipal offices, the upcoming holiday will not be celebrated any longer and there will be no Bosnian flags that symbolize this holiday.

The former mayor of Srebrenica, Camil Durakovic, told us that 'as far as the official local community is concerned, the practice of marking the statehood day will probably cease'.

- Considering the orientation of the politics that gave support to Mladen Grujicic during the election campaign, particularly that of SNSD and Milorad Dodik, and their destructiveness towards BiH, I don't believe there will be any event marking the day or that the day will be off work for Bosniaks, Durakovic said.

- Having said that, we will mark the day in the Memorial Center, Durakovic added, explaining that wreaths will be laid on Friday at the cemetery for those who gave their lives for the statehood of BiH.

- When I was the mayor, Bosniaks were off work on 25 November based on my decision to declare the holiday for all those who consider BiH their country. That practice will cease now both in Vukosavlje and Srebrenica, Durakovic said.

These are the first tangible results of the electoral loss of two municipalities, which Durakovic characterises as – reducing of the country.

- By losing Vukosavlje and Srebrenica in particular, in the symbolic and historical sense, we have lost a piece of BiH, Durakovic added.