Sarajevo Canton

The Minister for Veterans' Affairs of Sarajevo Canton, Hajrudin Grabovica, and the president of the Association of Parents of Children Killed during the Siege of Sarajevo 1992-95, Fikret Grabovica, signed a co-financing agreement on Thursday to establish the new Bijela Soba (White Room) memorial space dedicated to the memory of children killed during the war in Sarajevo.

The Ministry for Veterans' Affairs of Sarajevo Canton told BIRN that it set aside 2,680,000 Bosnian marks (1,370,000 euros) from 2013 to 2020 to help mainly Bosniak former Bosnian Army soldiers and police officers who are on trial for war crimes and their families.

Bosnian Pride organisers have cancelled this year's planned march in the capital, Sarajevo, because of the coronavirus outbreak - but have vowed to redouble efforts to make up for this with other activities designed to draw attention to community problems that the pandemic has only exacerbated.

After media reported that about 700 medical workers in Bosnia had taken sick leave lately, 300 at the Sarajevo University Clinical Centre, the biggest hospital in the capital, senior doctors and politicians have called for an investigation.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is not alone in using age as a determinant for developing guidance to particular populations, but has taken it to extremes by creating a punishable offence that only certain age groups can be charged with.

The idea is to provide temporary accommodation for migrants and refugees who have previously been sleeping rough on the streets of Sarajevo.

According to the IOM, the migrants will first go through a medical check-up pending registration after which they will have access to shelter, food, medical assistance and other humanitarian needs.

Republika Srpska had 29 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection by Thursday, and 23 of them are in Banja Luka.

The country has introduced emergency measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection. All restaurants and cafes are closed, and only grocery stores and pharmacies are still working.

The Basic Courts in Trebinje and Bijeljina told BIRN that they have turned down requests to ban associations whose names contain the words 'Chetnik Movement' or 'Ravna Gora Movement'.

The plea was "rejected as unfounded", said Jelica Ijacic, the secretary at Trebinje Basic Court.

The controversial Chetnik rally in Visegrad has been cancelled after the Interior Ministry in Bosnia's Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity on Wednesday issued a ban on all public gatherings until March 30 in an attempt to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Asim Sarajlic, the deputy leader of the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, the strongest Bosniak party in the country, resigned on Monday evening after the leak of an audio file which allegedly revealed details of a corrupt deal involving party officials.