Brcko: Hate Graffiti Targeting Serbs Found in School Yard
Brcko Mayor Sinisa Milic condemned hate graffiti found in the yard of a primary school in Grcica and called on police to track down those responsible.
Overnight between September 25 and 26, graffiti reading “Serbs to the willows” and “Knife, stake, Jasenovac” appeared in the yard of the Second Primary School in the Grcica neighborhood of Brcko District. The messages target the Serb community in Bosnia and Herzegovina directly, and the incident comes at a time when Belgrade routinely monitors the security and legal protection of Serbs outside Serbia’s borders, so any such case in a neighboring country draws the attention of Serbian foreign policy as well.
According to local media, the same hate messages appeared at several other locations across the district. Brcko Mayor Sinisa Milic condemned the graffiti in the strongest terms and said he was confident the district police would identify those responsible efficiently and professionally, after which the case would be forwarded to the relevant prosecutor’s office and court for processing.
Milic pointed in particular to his concern that the messages had been written in places meant for children, including a school yard where students spend their days. He called on citizens not to respond to such incidents with new messages of hate, stressing that Brcko must remain a place where differences are respected and problems are resolved through dialogue and institutions.
Hate must be answered with responsibility, and division with the determination to preserve peace and mutual respect, especially for the sake of our children, who have the right to grow up in a safe and tolerant society.
Milic said, addressing the public about the incident, adding that the district’s institutions must respond quickly and clearly, without delay.
Messages Found at Multiple Locations in the District
The exact number of locations where the graffiti appeared, and their precise sites, have not been specified, but city officials say several places outside the school in Grcica were affected. As of this writing, there has been no announcement that the authors of the graffiti have been found or that anyone has been detained over the messages. Brcko District police still have to identify the perpetrators before the case can be handed to the prosecutor’s office.
Why Brcko Is Sensitive Ground
Brcko District is a separate administrative unit of Bosnia and Herzegovina, outside the direct authority of Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a mixed population of Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats. Any incident with an ethnic dimension in the district is watched more closely than elsewhere in the country, since it threatens the fragile balance on which its special status rests. The phrase “Serbs to the willows” and the reference to Jasenovac, the site where Serbs were killed during World War Two, add further sensitivity to the case across the whole region, including the reaction expected from Belgrade.
Brcko District’s institutions have not announced a timeline for the investigation. What happens with the police in the coming days will determine whether the authors of the graffiti are identified and whether the case actually reaches the prosecutor’s office and the courts, as Mayor Milic has promised.
