Zvornik fortress graffiti: two French citizens reported

Police in Zvornik have identified two French citizens suspected of spraying hate graffiti on the walls of the Djurdjev Grad fortress, and the duty prosecutor at the District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Bijeljina has ordered a report on a criminal offence to be filed against them. The case was cleared in under twenty four hours, and it is the first known one since the National Assembly of Republika Srpska amended the Criminal Code to make public display of insignia of the so-called Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina punishable by prison.

What was written on the fortress walls

The graffiti was reported to police on July 28 at around 6.30 p.m. Alongside the wartime flag of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina used between 1992 and 1998, three inscriptions were sprayed on the stone walls:

• “Anti Srbi”, meaning anti-Serbs
• “Horde zla”, meaning hordes of evil
• “ACAB”

The location was not incidental. Djurdjev Grad is a medieval fortress with the status of a national monument and one of the largest fortifications on the territory of Republika Srpska, visible from almost anywhere in the town below.

Police say the suspects are two French citizens with the initials A.S. and M.S., born in Zvornik. They face charges of publicly provoking and inciting violence and hatred under Article 359 of the Criminal Code of Republika Srpska. No guilt is established until the proceedings conclude.

What did the July 9 amendments change?

On July 9, the National Assembly of Republika Srpska passed amendments to the Criminal Code under urgent procedure, setting a sentence of up to three years in prison for publicly displaying symbols, flags and insignia glorifying the so-called Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The law was adopted as a political message, without a specific incident on the ground behind it.

The Zvornik case is the first known one since those amendments, even though the charge announced by prosecutors falls under Article 359, a provision that already existed. How the two will interact in practice will be decided in cases exactly like this one.

The mayor’s response

Zvornik Mayor Bojan Ivanovic spoke on July 30 and urged residents not to respond to provocations.

The graffiti incident at the Zvornik fortress has raised tensions in this town that are not needed.

His caution has a history behind it. After the war Zvornik was treated as one of the examples of refugee return and coexistence in Republika Srpska, a town cited in regional reporting as proof that return was more than paperwork. That reputation took years to build, and it is fragile enough that a single night of spray paint can dent it, all the more so because the suspects were born in Zvornik and no longer live there.

The file now sits with the District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Bijeljina, which decides what happens next. If it leads to an indictment, it will be the first test of how the judiciary in Republika Srpska reads its own July amendments.