Sarajevo

Pride Parades attract hate speech in Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia

Pride parades in Sarajevo and Skopje on June 25 prompted numerous digital rights violations which followed the common pattern of online hate speech against the LGBT+ community.

Bosnia's capital Sarajevo is gearing up for its fourth Pride March this Saturday, which will be held during the Pride Month for the first time and culminate a month of activities dedicated to bringing families and their queer members closer.

The Forgotten Children of War association and a group of young Bosnian women laid flowers on Tuesday in tribute to children killed during the 1992-95 war in Sarajevo and in the neighbouring city of East Sarajevo.

They also displayed placards spelling out the words: "They were just children. Together we can build bridges for the future."

Photo: Forgotten Children of War.

A decision by the Sarajevo Cantonal Assembly to name one of the streets in the Novi Grad municipality after a Hague Tribunal defendant, deceased Bosnian Army general Mehmed Alagic has been criticised by survivors of the 1992-95 war, international organisations and rights activists.

Police in Bosnia's mainly Serbian Republika Srpska entity and Sarajevo Canton have received emailed threats targeting schools.

On Wednesday, several police units in Republika Srpska and Sarajevo Canton received the threatening emails containing bomb threats to elementary and high schools.

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.

Veto Powers

Minutes prior to start of a UN Security Council meeting related to Russian ongoing invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, USA, March 11 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/JUSTIN LANE

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.

According to opinion polls, Imamoglu would beat Erdogan, whose popularity has suffered as a result of a series of political and international crises, and mostly due to the grave economic crisis.

He is cautious about his own prospects. "The opposition parties will work very selectively to decide the best presidential candidate," Imamoglu said.

Almir Hodzic, president of the Bosna volleyball club, was also coming back from training the same day.

"Maja was a symbol of a cosmopolitan Sarajevo, a symbol of the stupidity of the war. All the absurdity of the war is reflected in her face," Hodzic said.