Baroness Arminka Helic after fire near Srebrenica: New sanctions are long overdue

Helic made the remarks on X while commenting on a post by political scientist Jasmin Mujanovic concerning recent developments in Srebrenica.

“New sanctions are long overdue. This is a sustained campaign to intimidate Bosniak returnees and desecrate the Srebrenica Memorial Center , a calculated cowardly attempt to erase memory and silence survivors. It’s vile, and inaction is complicity,” Helic wrote.

Fire at returnee's property

A fire broke out at poultry-farming facilities belonging to returnee Nazif Alic in the village of Grujicici near Srebrenica, causing extensive material damage.

According to Bosnian news outlet Politicki.ba, which first reported the incident, the damage is estimated to exceed one million Bosnian marks (approximately €511,000).

Police and firefighters responded to the scene, while the cause of the fire has not yet been officially established.

Alic told Politicki.ba that police officers remained at the scene for around 20 minutes and that a fire inspector did not immediately arrive to conduct an examination.

“Unfortunately, the police officers stayed for about twenty minutes and then left the scene. They told us that the fire inspector would come in a day or two,” Alic told Politicki.ba.

According to the outlet, Alic began investing in the poultry farm in 2016, initially putting around 900,000 Bosnian marks into the project. The farm was designed to accommodate approximately 35,000 chickens but never became fully operational.

Alic points to longstanding land dispute

Alic also spoke about a longstanding dispute concerning the land on which the facilities are located, saying there had been pressure for him to sell the property to a nearby monastery.

“I have not sold and will never sell the land because it has no price,” Alic said.

He did not state as fact that the fire was connected to the dispute, saying instead that he expected the investigation to determine what happened.

“Whether this fire has anything to do with the monk's pressure to take the land remains to be seen. I still want to believe that the police will do their job professionally,” Alic told Politicki.ba.

There has so far been no official confirmation that the fire was deliberately set or that it was connected to the land dispute.