Bosniaks of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Bosnian state prosecution filed an indictment this week charging ten people with committing a war crime in Sarajevo on May 3, 1992, when a Yugoslav People's Army military convoy was withdrawing from the capital.

The appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court on Thursday sentenced the former commander of the Third Corps of the Bosnian Army, Sakib Mahmuljin to a combined sentence of eight years for war crimes in the Vozuca and Zavidovici areas in 1995.

The Bosnian state prosecution said on Wednesday that it has charged ten suspects including Ejup Ganic, who was a member of Bosnia's presidency during the war, with committing war crimes against prisoners of war and civilians in the controversial Dobrovoljacka Street case.

In that sense, Bosnia's sovereignty can only be truly championed by its own citizens. Still, it is striking that for a country which at one time was the poster child of the triumphs of international liberalism, the cause of liberal democracy in Bosnia effectively falls on deaf ears in most Western capitals.

Around a hundred Bosnian Serbs, bussed into Sarajevo under police escort, staged a protest on Tuesday in front of the Bosnian state court and prosecution building, clutching banners and photographs of Serbs killed during the war to protest a perceived neglect for crimes committed against Serbs.

The retrial of Sakib Mahmuljin began on Tuesday at the appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court after the first-instance verdict sentencing the former commander of the Bosnian Army's Third Corps to ten years in prison was quashed.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (C) and Bosnia presidency member Milorad Dodik (L) meeting in Sarajevo, July 8, 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR

The Bosnian Serb leader earlier threatened to withdraw all Bosnian Serb officials from state-level institutions and re-establish a Bosnian Serb army, fomenting fresh fears of Bosnia's collapse and of armed conflict.

After leaving the building, SDA presidency member Alma olo said that no agreement had been reached, that everything else was up for discussion.

He pointed out that there are many sources of misunderstanding in Bosnia-Herzegovina and that relations must be considered in more detail.
"When it comes to Mr Dodik, his unusual expression, someone may like it or not, but he is supported by the largest number of representatives of the Serb people in Bosnia-Herzegovina," Covic told HRT, as reported by Srna.

Sarajevo City Council on Wednesday voted to erect a monument to the mostly ethnic Serb civilian victims of the wartime Kazani Pit killings, but rejected a proposal by the Nasa Stranka party to name their killers on the inscription.