FIGHT FOR ETHNIC REASONS

On 11 April 2000, a fight, with several persons taking place, happened in Banovici. More precisely, a group of members of SDA (Party of Democratic Action) attacked a group of Romany people because the latter voted for SDP (Social Democratic Party) at the local elections. In the fight, five Romany people were heavily injured by knifes and some of them are still in a hospital. Romany were being insulted on the ethnic grounds all the time.
The policemen who came at the place of incident behaved incorrectly toward Romany, partially taking side of assailants.
After the incident, there is a fear among Romany in Banovici that such attacks can repeat, and some of them do not sleep in their homes.
After the incident, no measures were undertaken against perpetrators. Moreover, there were similar cases happening before – beatings up, throwing grenades on Romany’s houses, nationalistic insults and similar – but neither civil or criminal proceedings were undertaken although the perpetrators were known.
We can conclude on the basis of our knowledge so far that municipal authorities in Banovici do not want to find persons who are responsible for such behaviour, this encouraging perpetrators of such acts. This refers primarily to the Mayor of the municipality Enes Mujic, then to police and judiciary bodies, believed to be under his full control.
Following the incident in Banovici, Prof. Dr. Nedjo Milicevic, Vice President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in BH and Director of the Centre for Protection of Minorities’ Rights visited Banovici. The Mayor of the municipality Enes Mujic escaped to meet Prof. Milicevic although the meeting was agreed in advance in writing.
During Mr. Milicevic’s discussions with representatives of Romany, in the Hotel “Litva”, seven policemen were walking around, provoking participants in discussion and “escorted” the vehicles driving the participants of discussion to the exit from Banovici.
The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in BH and the Centre for Protection of Minorities’ Rights condemn the acts of violence and intimidation against the members of Romany ethnic minority, deeming them as signs of threatening the position of minorities and their rights and as an inadmissible attack toward the people of different political opinion.
We wish to emphasise the accountability of the Mayor of the municipality Enes Mujic, members of the police forces and judiciary in Banovici who neither undertook legal measures for protection of citizens whose security is threatened nor corresponding measures to punish the perpetrators of this horrible act.

Sarajevo, 25 April 2000
No. 39-04/2000