The Bosniak National Council said on Tuesday that it had informed the European Union and other international institutions that the Serbian state TV (RTS) had refused to form a Bosnian-language desk.

Under Serbian law, national minorities have the right to form national councils with some executive powers to safeguard their language and culture.  

The Bosniak National Council said that it had called the EU and other institutions to “protect the rights of the Bosniak people in the Sandzak and in Serbia”. The Sandzak is an area of southwestern Serbia bordering on Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro with a large Bosniak/Moslem population.  

The Council said that the RTS refusal to form a Bosniak-language desk means that it “explicitly denies the existence of the Bosniak language and the Bosniak people”. “That attitude is proof that Serbian state bodies and institutions are actively implementing a discriminatory policy towards the Bosniak people in the Sandzak,” it said and called international institutions to “protect the basic rights of the Bosniak people in the Sandzak” and start resolving “the status of the Bosniaks and the Sandzak region”.