The authorities of Bosnia's Serb-majority entity have unveiled a bust Thursday to the former Republika Srpska (RS) President Nikola Koljevic, whom the international war-crimes tribunal named as one of the participants of the joint criminal enterprise in a verdict to the war-time RS President Radovan Karadzic.
The bust, set in front of the Banja Luka National Theatre was unveiled by the incumbent RS President Zeljka Cvijanovic and Koljevic's daughter, Bogdana.
At the first multi-party elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, back in 1990, Koljevic was elected as a Serb member of Bosnia's Presidency.
In April 1992 he left the Presidency, and during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia, he occupied the post of a Vice-President of Republika Srpska – one of two semi-autonomous entities in the country.
Koljević was the sole person to sign the declaration on behalf of Republika Srpska approving the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina as set out in Annex 4 of the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the was on Bosnia.
The unveiling ceremony was attended by the Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency Milorad Dodik, RS government representatives, as well as representatives of the “Creators of Republika Srpska” Association who initiated the bust's creation, leaders of some other RS parties and numerous citizens from this entity.
10ak metara od biste Aleksandra Sergejeviča Puškina, ispred Narodnog pozorišta u BL sada je i bista Nikole Koljevića @N1infoSA pic.twitter.com/MilOHVtoCs
— Snezana Mitrovic (@Snejkicaa) November 14, 2019
Following the unveiling, the largest Bosniak party in the country, the Democratic Action Party (SDA) reacted, saying the unveiling ceremony is “a new scandalous, anti-civilisation act of glorification of war-crimes by RS authorities.”
They said that Koljevic was named as one of the participants of the jint criminal enterprise that led to monstrous crimes and some of the biggest violations of international humanitarian law, in a verdict to Radovan Karadzic, the formed Bosnian Serb leader and war-time RS President, by the international court in the Hague.
Milorad Dodik's participation in the glorification of such an individual is a new insult to the victims, a violation of the rule of law and verdicts of international courts, and his further self-isolation which led to his placement on the US government's blacklist, and several other unofficial lists,” the SDA said in their statement on Thursday.
They added that the glorification of war crimes represents a direct threat to Bosnia's stability and peace, and an alarm to institutions in charge of peace implementation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Nikola Koljevic (1936 – 1997) was also a professor at the Sarajevo Faculty of Philosophy and a visiting fellow at Michigan and Chicago universities. He was one of the foremost Yugoslavian Shakespeare scholars.
