Milorad Dodik during an election rally in Foca, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Photo: BIRN.
Milorad Dodik has been criticised for making derogatory comments about Bosniaks at a press conference on Monday following the weekend’s presidential election in Bosnia’s mainly Serb Republika Srpska entity, which his ally, Sinisa Karan, won.
After insulting Bosniaks during the election campaign, Dodik used his speech to describe Muslim Bosniaks from Sarajevo as enemies and “balijas” – a highly derogatory term – and call for the independence of Republika Srpska from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Promising that Karan, his successor as Republika Srpska president, will take decisive action, Dodik told the press conference: “I think these ‘balijas’ in Sarajevo will miss Milorad Dodik when they see what Sinisa Karan is going to do.
“We are aware of our enemies, and I want this nation to know that you have to inflict some losses on the enemy every day because he is your enemy, and Muslims, the Sarajevo political establishment and Muslim Sarajevo, are our enemy,” he declared.
Suan Islamovic, a law professor in the northwestern city of Bihac, argued that Dodik’s speech breached legislation against hate speech.
Islamovic said that at many of his election campaign appearances, Dodik committed “the criminal offence of inciting racial, ethnic and religious hatred, which is punishable by law.
“The problem is that we have become accustomed to him denying genocide and other crimes, spreading hatred, it’s become standard, and the media and the public no longer see it as something dangerous and degrading,” Islamovic added.
Answering a question from a BIRN journalist at another press conference about using the term balijas, Dodik expressed regret. “I apologise to anyone who was offended, I know a lot of good Bosniaks, Muslims,” he said. He explained that he was talking about politicians, not ordinary people.
During the election campaign, the Central Election Commission initiated proceedings against Dodik’s Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, over anti-Muslim comments made at a rally in East Sarajevo.
The Election Commission fined the party 30,000 Bosnian marks, equal to about 15,000 euros, for hate speech.
Several complaints were also submitted to the state prosecution for alleged incitement of inciting national, religious and ethnic hatred. The case was forwarded the case to the District Prosecutor’s Office in East Sarajevo.
Lawyer Senad Bilic said Dodik’s public statements about Bosniaks regularly put him at risk of prosecution, but doubted that legal action would be taken against him for his language on election night.
“There is no doubt that this is hate speech … [but], knowing the practices of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, I do not think it will be classified as a criminal offence,” Bilic said.
The presidential election in Republika Srpska was held after Dodik was removed from office in August last year, after he was sentenced to one year in prison and received a six-year ban on holding the office of president for not complying with the decisions of Bosnia’s international peace overseer, the High Representative.
Karan, also a member of Dodik’s SNSD, will hold the position of Republika Srpska president until the general election due in Bosnia in October.