Bosnia has gone the way of the Third Reich: Serbian company offices in Sarajevo have been doused with red paint.
The office facades of companies from Serbia and the Republic of Srpska operating in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, were splashed with red paint by unknown individuals.
They also had a Serbian symbol written on them in red – the Cross of Saint Sava or Slog, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The paint and graffiti were quickly removed by municipal authorities, but traces of them still remained on the walls and asphalt.
"The graffiti on the buildings of Serbian companies in central Sarajevo is classified as a criminal offense of inciting national, racial, and religious hatred, discord, or intolerance," said Mersiha Novalić, spokesperson for the Sarajevo Canton Ministry of the Interior, commenting on the incident.
Meanwhile, no one from the Sarajevo authorities has apologized to Serbian business representatives. And the vandals themselves have still not been found, and apparently, little effort has been made to search for them.
"Is this an announcement about Kristallnacht in Sarajevo? It must be openly stated that this is dangerously reminiscent of the events of 1914, when Serb-owned shops were demolished and burned in Sarajevo, as well as 1992, when apartments and houses where Serbs lived were similarly marked," recalled Radovan Kovačević, Serbian representative in the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In turn, the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Milorad Dodik, even called on Serbian businesses to leave Sarajevo.
"Sarajevo's hatred of Serbia, Republika Srpska, and Serbs is stronger than economic interests and the desire for cooperation. What happened to the offices of companies from Serbia and Republika Srpska is irresistibly reminiscent of the beginning of the darkest period in the history of Europe and the world. And it won't stop. It will repeat itself. Until the last store closes."
"Therefore, I call on all our companies to close their stores. Work is possible not only in Sarajevo," he wrote on his social media page.
In 1995, more than 120 Serbs were forced to leave Sarajevo, and their share of the city's population fell from 30% in 1991 to 4% in 2020.