Samra Cosovic-Hajdarevic, an MP in Sarajevo Canton's Parliament from the strongest Bosniak party in the country, the Democratic Action Party (SDA), is seeking penalties for protesters who flooded the streets of Sarajevo during the Catholic mass for Bleiburg killings.
“I call on all those responsible for maintaining public peace and order to identify and punish all persons who committed a misdemeanour and violated a banning order, based on video recordings,” said Cosovic-Hajdarevic during an online session, arguing they thus threatened the epidemiological situation in the canton.
The event took place last Saturday, May 16, when close to 5,000 people attended a protest gathering against the mass held by Bosnia's Cardinal Vinko Puljic for those killed at Bleiburg, in WWII. The protesters gathered in front of the Philosophy Faculty and then walked to the partizan memorial Eternal Flame.
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Cosovic-Hajdarevic also asked who will bear the responsibility in case the number of Covid-19 patients rises drastically.
Until this year, the commemorations were held in the Loibach field in the southern region of Carinthia, in tribute to tens of thousands of Croatian civilians and soldiers of the defeated pro-Nazi Independent State of Croatia (NDH) who surrendered to allied forces there in May 1945 but were handed over by British troops to Tito-led Yugoslav partisans. Some of those civilians and soldiers were executed on the spot, while many perished during so-called death marches back to Yugoslavia.
The central commemoration of the Bleiburg victims was held under the auspices of the Croatian parliament, but due to the coronavirus epidemic this year it was not held in Bleiburg, but the victims were commemorated in three places, in Bleiburg, Zagreb and Sarajevo.
The commemoration has caused a torrent of condemnation ranging from local officials like Bosnia's Croat and Bosniak Presidency members, Sarajevo city officials, the local Jewish Municipality and Jewish representatives from the country, to the Israeli Embassy and the World Jewish Council – all expressing their belief that the Church leg by Vinko Puljic decided to support and hold the mass in Sarajevo, where tens of thousands of innocent anti-fascists and civilians were killed by the NDH.
