BiH lawmaker calls for investigation into claims linking Aleksandar Vucic to ‘Sarajevo Safari’

Semsudin Mehmedovic, president of the political party Naprijed! and a member of the BiH House of Representatives, told the Fena news agency that his party is demanding the Bosnia and Herzegovina Prosecutor’s Office immediately open an investigation into Vucic’s alleged activities, particularly in the Sarajevo neighbourhood of Grbavica.

“If the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina fails to act within 30 days, we will demand that the investigation be taken over by the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor’s Office,” Mehmedovic said.

Mehmedovic cited a recently published document made public by investigative journalist Domagoj Margetic, which he says was signed by Slavko Aleksic, a convicted war criminal and former commander of a Chetnik unit operating in Grbavica. According to Mehmedovic, the document explicitly claims that Vucic, allegedly acting as a volunteer in that unit, brought 20,000 German marks, reportedly collected from an unnamed Italian donor, during a visit to the Jewish Cemetery and Grbavica.

“We demand that the authenticity of this document be urgently verified and that, based on it and other available evidence, an investigation be immediately opened and an international arrest warrant issued through Interpol,” Mehmedovic said.

He stressed that if the document is confirmed as authentic, it would represent serious evidence that the so-called ‘Sarajevo Safari’ - in which foreign nationals allegedly paid to shoot at civilians in besieged Sarajevo - was organised from Serbia, and that the current Serbian president played an active role, not as a bystander, but as a participant who brought money and carried weapons.

“Aleksandar Vucic must answer before the law for his actions in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a volunteer in a notorious Chetnik unit that tortured, killed, abused and unlawfully detained non-Serb civilians in Grbavica,” Mehmedovic said.

He added that if the state prosecutor’s office is unwilling or unable to act due to political pressure, the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor’s Office has both a moral and legal obligation to initiate proceedings.

“Because of the thousands of detained Sarajevo residents, because of the women from Grbavica who were tortured and raped, there is a clear responsibility to launch an investigation and prosecute those responsible,” Mehmedovic said.

There has been no immediate response from Serbian officials or prosecutors in Bosnia and Herzegovina to Mehmedovic’s claims.