The person suspected of having shot at the Mayor of the northern municipality of Vukosavlje on Thursday evening has been identified and the Mayor expects him to be detained. The incident prompted a reaction from Bosnia’s top international official who called for a thorough investigation.

Mayor Borislav Rakic told the local Srna news agency that the incident took place on the Sava river, where he went fishing with three friends. The group was shot at with a hunting rifle.  

He said the incident made him worry about ethnic Serbs living in the Bosniak-Croat Federation (FBiH), one of the country’s two semi-autonomous regions.

“I believe that as the Mayor of the Vukosavlje municipality I have a lot of publicity that others don’t, so I ask myself – what is happening to Serbs in FBiH and what kind of message is being sent to Serb returnees to FBiH,” Rakic said.  

Nobody was hurt in the incident.  

The Office of the High Representative (OHR), the official the international community appointed to oversee the implementation of the 1995 Dayton Peace Treaty which ended the war in the country, reacted to the incident on Friday.  

“This one and similar incidents confirm that there is a clear need for an atmosphere of tolerance and cooperation to be established throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said High Representative Valentin Inzko.