Associations of victims from the eastern Bosnian Podrinje region said they were saddened by the reaction of Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency Zeljka Cvijanovic after she expressed her support to the Ambassador to Serbia over his recent controversial statements.

“After the Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Serbia congratulated Aleksandar Vulin in an extremely rude manner and with the intention of insulting the victims from Bosnia and Herzegovina for helping two students who were expelled from the Sarajevo University over the insults for the victims, Zeljka Cvijanovic, the Serb member of BiH Presidency stood up to protect the shameful act of the Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Serbia,” said the statement signed by the Association of Victims and Witnesses of Genocide, the Association of the Mothers of Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves and the Association of Podrinje Women.

Their reaction comes days after newly appointed ambassador Aleksandar Vranjes met with US-sanctioned chief of Serbia's top security agency Aleksandar Vulin, thanking him for the scholarship he gave to two now former students of Sarajevo University, who glorified war criminals in their social media posts.

Vranjes expressed his gratitude for the support to Valentina Vujicic and Sladjana Todic, who made online posts on July 11, the day of the commemoration for the Srebrenica genocide victims, glorifying war criminals. One of them posted a photo of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic with the caption “good that we killed all of you.”

Online posts of the two students, who were enrolled in the Faculty of Criminal Justice, Criminology and Security Studies sparked strong reactions in the public, so Vulin decided to offer them scholarships at the BIA Academy in Belgrade.

Ambassador's actions prompted two Presidency members, Bosniak Denis Becirovic and Croat Zeljko Komsic to ask the Foreign Affairs Ministry to summon Vranjes for urgent consultations back in Sarajevo, but the ambassador said he discussed the matter with Serb Presidency member Cvijanovic, who told him this was not an official decision of the Presidency and that he got her support for his work.

Presidency members want ambassador to Serbia back for “urgent consultations”

Responding to Cvijanovic's support to Vranjes, the associations of victims said they were “saddened by the fact that a woman, a mother is acting entirely recklessly” and giving the protection to the ambassador “without any empathy towards the victims of aggression in BiH, instead of calling the BiH Ambassador to Serbia to account for violating the bodies of BiH.”

“Mrs Cvijanovic, doesn't the phrase ‘good that we killed all of you’ spark the feeling of shame in you as a mother, don't you have any empathy for the mothers whose children were killed in genocide, is it possible that a mother is acting that way? Your relation towards the genocide victims is extremely inhuman and we, the victims, especially the mothers, have nothing else left but to be proud that we are not like you, that we respect other victims. And you? May God help you,” the associations said.