Davor Dragicevic and the “Justice for David” group blocked the traffic in the centre of Banjaluka, Northern Bosnia, protesting the lack of any progress in the investigation of the death Davor’s 21-year-old son, David Dragicevic.
“They’re preventing our people from coming to Banjaluka. They blocked the entire country. There will be no election, no work, no nothing,” Davor Dragicevic said while standing in the middle of the street, preventing all traffic with other members of the “Justice for David” group.
Bosnia will hold a general election on Sunday at which Bosnian citizens will elect members of the state's tripartite presidency, entity presidents and vice presidents, as well as the members of the state, entity and cantonal parliaments.
According to the first, official police report, David Dragicevic died in an accident when he fell into a stream in Banjaluka, where he drowned.
The young man’s family claims that it is impossible that David’s death was “accidental” as was said during the first press conference on this case. Due to the public disturbance and constant protests caused by the case, the National Assembly of the RS formed a Board of Inquiry with the aim of identifying the relevant circumstances of this young man's death. After the Board concluded that there were elements for the suspicion that he could have been killed, the ruling coalition of delegates rejected the Board’s report saying that only by the competent prosecutor's office can qualify the case.
The District Prosecutor's Office of Banjaluka then submitted an order to conduct an investigation into the murder of Dragicevic against several unknown persons, and according to the details of the order, David Dragicevic “either ran away from the perpetrators and fell down the steep banks of the River Crkvena from a height of around 4.5 meters, or the perpetrators pushed him into the river from the banks when he drowned shortly after hitting the water.”
Earlier on Friday, the Republika Srpska (RS) entity police were dispatched across all major roads and highways in the RS, searching all “suspicious” vehicles, suspected of carrying protesters coming to Banjaluka to attend the protests announced for Friday at 6 p.m.
Just before 5 p.m., the RS police stopped a bus carrying protesters from Novi Grad (North-West Bosnia), who then decided to walk to Banjaluka in order to attend the protests.
“There is no more state. Block everything. Let (RS Interior Minister Dragan) Lukac and (RS President Milorad) Dodik come, let them all come,” Dragicevic said.
The protesters continued shouting “justice for David,” “murderers, murderers” and asked, “who killed David?” Initial reports said that several thousand people gathered in the centre of Banjaluka, saying they will remain there “until the end.”
Davor Dragicevic said the protests will not begin until all protesters are allowed to join the protests in Banjaluka.
He also addressed the RS authorities saying: “Should you move in to attack these beautiful people around me, you killed me a long time ago, you won’t have a good time, neither you nor your families. They banned people from coming here, are we a concentration camp so that we can’t host anyone,” Dragicevic asked.
Then he warned that he will “start hunting his son’s murderers on Thursday, at 6 p.m.”
