The principal of the primary school in Srebrenica which came under fire over a photo showing students wearing traditional Serb attire with “brothers Chetniks” written above it condemned “any offensive content” that the students might have posted online, adding that the photo was not taken at the official celebration of the Saint Sava holiday which was organised by the school.
The controversial photo of the nine students was taken on Monday during the celebration of the Orthodox Christian holiday. Bosniak parents and several officials expressed concern over it, questioning whether Bosniak children are safe in the school.
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The Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army was a WWII Serb nationalist movement. During the 1992-95 Bosnian war, Serb nationalists wearing Chetnik insignia committed numerous crimes against humanity against the non-Serb population in the Bosnia – including the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.
Along with his colleagues, Dragi Jovanovic, the principal of the First Primary School Srebrenica, faced strong criticism because of the matter.
Deputy Municipal Mayor Hamdija Fejzic called upon Jovanovic to resign, arguing that the incident was a result of his poor management.
Former Srebrenica mayor Camil Durakovic, however, argued that such incidents favour the education system in Bosnia’s Serb-majority region of Republika Srpska (RS), where Srebrenica is located. RS authorities want a “generation of young Chetniks,” he said.
But according to Jovanovic, the school had nothing to do with the photo.
“The children posted some photo which was not taken at the official part of the Sint Sava Day celebration. We have 430 children here, they all have their individual profiles and it’s truly impossible to oversee it all. If there was any offensive content, I do not support that and, on behalf of the school, I condemn any kind of glorification of past ideologies,” Jovanovic said.
He explained that the Saint Sava Day celebration was included in the school calendar which was adopted without any complaints by the school's board.
“We celebrate the Day of the School and the Saint Sava Day on that day since we have no other special day set for it,” he said, explaining that Saint Sava Day is officially celebrated in the traditional way – a religious ceremony at the Church in the morning, then a school play in the afternoon.
No students are obliged to attend the event, he stressed.
“There were no Bosniak children there, nobody forced them to participate in any activities, nor did anybody force Serb children into it. We have students who want to participate in some activities, while others don’t,” he added.
