Pravda za Davida: How a murder grew into a political movement

This story starts some time in March 2018, when a 21-year-old young man named David Dragičević was found dead in Banja Luka (BL), Republika Srpska (RS), Bosnia-Herzegovina. The boy disappeared on 18 March and his body was found in the city's river Crkvena 6 days later. Police investigation did not find any tracks of foul play, though the autopsy revealed that there was at least physical altercation before the young man's death, adding that the body had been under water for at least a week. Yet - despite the autopsy report - the BL police decided to close the case adding that the cause of death was drowning.

David Dragičević (right) with his father Davor (photo: Facebook/Pravda za Davida)

As the public found it all suspicious and there was a huge pressure on the police, a pathologist from Belgrade, Serbia was called. Upon the new report the body was in the water for 2-4 days the maximum and the boy probably lived at least 2 more days after his disappearance. Despite the new report the police didn't order new investigation and this fact as well as the growing tension around the case led to protests in BL.

Davor Dragičević at the photo of his son David at a demonstration in July 2018. (photo: Anadolu/BIRN)

In the meantime Dragan Lukač, interior minister of RS claimed that the police did what they could, they didn't hide anything. Davor Dragičević said his son was killed and the police were trying to conceal evidences. As a reply minister Lukač filed a lawsuit against Dragičević for defamation.

The people of BL protested ahead. Every single day at 18:00 they gathered at Krajina square which they named "Trg Davida" (David's square) and demonstrated. They had their own hashtag #PravdaZaDavida, meanwhile more and more politicians tried to have their say about the case. In August 2018 opposition politicians requested an extra parliamentary session charging the prosecutor's office with intentional delaying of the investigation. A committee of MP's were made (with the majority of opposition politicians) and they informed that the Prosecutor's Office had made numerous failures during the information of the public and this fact even more undermines the continuously weakening confidence in the public institutions. The ruling coalition - after heavy debates - dismissed the report made by the committee saying it was "overly politicized".

Later that month a journalist of Bijeljina-based BN TV, Vladimir Kovačević was attacked at daylight on the street. Kovačević is known to cover the case of David Dragičević. Just before the attack he sent material to the TV station, and as he was about to return to his workplace, two youngsters attacked and beat him.

Prije 20 minuta su me dok sam se vraćao sa posla dva momka zaskočila i namlatila šipkama na razvlačenje. pic.twitter.com/qEllwPvAvn

— Vladimir Kovacevic (@corbapas) August 26, 2018

"20 minutes ago, as I was returning to work, two boys surrounded me and hit me with rods until I collapsed" Kovačević wrote on Twitter. The attackers were never found.

Time passed. The demonstrators on David's square were joined by the parents of Dženan Memić and Danijela Aranđelović, two young people whose deaths have not been resolved and whose parents also do not want to believe the police's version.

Report of BN TV, a Bijeljina-based TV-channel about the 238th day of the demonstration on 18 November, 2018.

Then in December 2018 something broke in the system. Those in power probably got fed up with the continuous demonstration for almost 300 days and Davor Dragičević was arrested together with David's mother Suzana on 25 December, 2018.

The moment when David's mother Suzana is carried away by policemen. The mother is still holding her son's photo.
Serbian journalist Žarko Bogosavljević's comment: "This photo will be remembered and will appear in the history books as the end of Milorad Dodik"

Ovo fotografija ce biti zapamcena i pojavljivace se u istorijskim knjigama kao Kraj Miodraga Dodika #PravdaZaDavida pic.twitter.com/ANOsh7Gfom

— zarko bogosavljevic (@zarkobns) December 25, 2018

The official justification of their arrest was that Dragičević was reported four days before for demonstrating in front of the Banja Luka parliament, just when the new government was elected. He did not respond to the accusation and the police arrested him. Suzana Radanović, David's mother was happened to be there at the moment of arrest, so the police took her, too, to custody. Later that day she was released, but Dragičević was held in custody the next day as well.
Soon after the arrest people started to gather at Krajina square to demonstrate. Massive police forces appeared making a barricade around the home-made memorial for David. In the overly-tensioned atmosphere they arrested Draško Stanivuković, an opposition MP and lawyer.

pic.twitter.com/ffYJ3BBHjX

— Драшко Станивуковић (@StanivukovicD5) December 25, 2018

Sympathy demonstrations were held later that day in Belgrade...

#PravdaZaDavida Sada. U Beogradu. pic.twitter.com/SlwBukdscP

— Radaković Dragana (@de_la_radakovic) December 26, 2018

...Zrenjanin...

#PravdaZaDavida i u Zrenjaninu! #pravda za svu našu decu. Istina i pravda za sve nas!#zrenjanin @Davor95007141 pic.twitter.com/xc4D69nUTg

— Nataša Velemir (@NatasaVelemir) December 26, 2018

...Zagreb...

#PravdaZaDavida Zagreb pic.twitter.com/HFTrza5G16

— Maja Sever (@SeverMaja) December 27, 2018

...and Novi Sad.

In the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad, citizens held a protest walk in support of 'Justice for David' protests in Bosnia's Banja Luka, where Davor Dragicevic is leading a campaign to try to get justice for his son's death.

Another rally will take place in Banja Luka at 6pm. pic.twitter.com/k1HVLA1Aea

— Balkan Insight (@BalkanInsight) December 27, 2018

It probably didn't do much well to the general climate of opinion that Milorad Dodik said Krajina square has been occupied illegally, claiming that it was in fact the police that was attacked. "Those who attack the police attack the state", he said adding that he would personally protect the police physically.

Interesting that the same Milorad Dodik shook hands with Davor Dragičević back in the spring when the October elections in BiH were already in the reach, just when RS's interior minister Dragan Lukač claimed the police is doing a great job about the investigation of David's death. The media was full of reporting how Dodik just stepped over Lukač's authority and analysts said Dodik clearly wanted political advance by appearing at the protests.

The latest news about the case is an interview of TV channel N1 with Dragičević's - now former - lawyer Anto Nobilo. The Croatian attorney said that David is murdered, but he was not assassinated, nor raped (as many claim), nor was his murder a conspiracy by the police and the Prosecutor's Office.
"The father [Dragičević] is desperate. I feel for him, I understand him, his son died. But in the meantime people from politics surround him and direct him. They tell him that [his son] was massacred, raped, that the police killed him, that it was ordered by the interior minister. None of these are true", claimed Nobilo.

Kosovo Forms Its Own Army

Earlier this week the parliament in Prishtina voted to form its own defensing force by upgrading KSF (Kosovo Security Force) into KAF (Kosovo Army Force) to be a professional army.

We already know that in the Balkans nothing ever is as simple as it seems first, and if it's about Kosovo and/or its relation with Serbia, things turn into even more complicated and heated. Kosovo Security Force (KSF) is (was) Kosovo's security force, a lightly armed group of about 2500 soldiers (with 800 reserve members) serving in civil protection, disaster recovery, fire department as well as search and rescue. They were formed in 2009 by KFOR (the peacekeeping force of NATO in Kosovo) and KPC (Kosovo Protection Corps, a civil emergency service), led by major-general Rrahman Rama.

Kosovo Security Force members

photo: Valdrin Xhemaj, EPA/BIRN

In 2014 was established the Defense Ministry of Kosovo with a plan to make a professional defense force out of KSF until 2019. Then-defence minister Agim Ceku said, Kosovo needs armed forces to keep up the territorial integrity and sovereignty. This plan seems to come to life right now, in these days.

As it was expected, Serbia heavily protested against Kosovo forming its own professional army. Serbian defense minister Aleksandar Vulin said to Serbian state television RTS that he would discuss it with KFOR, because the surveillance of Kosovo is and should be the responsibility of the international community only. Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić went further saying 'We will try to prevent there things from happening and we will make further decisions when they do.' A not too hidden threatening.

The question rises, and here enters the especially interesting part of the situation, namely, what does the international community, the UN and NATO plan to do? Because just a year ago, when the question of an independent Kosovo army was again on the agenda, NATO officials said that they are against Prishtina's plan, so did the US. NATO's secretary general Jens Stoltenberg warned the Kosovo leadership in March 2017 to stay in close contact with Belgrade and if they have any plan to transform KSF into a 'multiethnic force', it should be done by NATO standards as well as in accordion with the Constitution of Kosovo.
After all these at the beginning of October 2018 Hashim Thaci suddenly announced that KAF will be formed from KSF into an 5000-member professional army with at least 3000 reserve soldiers. The Prishtina parliament passed the bill with two-third majority, the members of Lista Srpska, the party of the Serbian minority in Kosovo boycotted the voting.

Knowing the negative approach of the international community, their reaction for Prishtina passing the bill and Kosovo forming their professional army was at least interesting, if not strange. NATO officials said, right now they have no plan to leave Kosovo, but if the status of KSF changes, they will start to reduce their forces there. Reuters cite an unnamed NATO official who said 'any change in the structure, mandate and mission of KSF is for the Kosovo authorities to decide'.
The reaction of the US raises even more questions. Nikki Haley, the now former UN-ambassador for the US wrote a letter to UN secretary general Antonio Gutierres soon before leaving her position suggesting that UNMIK, the UN's peacekeeping force in Kosovo 'has long fulfilled its mandate and [...] as [the region] marks its ten years of independence', for this reason she suggests that UNMIK should 'develop an exit strategy'. You can read the whole letter of Haley by clicking here.

A row of unanswered questions rises. What is the actual reason to have a professional army in Kosovo - apart from the usual diplomatic reasoning? What made the international community have this 180° turn from having concerns to watching it passively, as well as urging peacekeeping forces to leave the region? It's not the first time that the fate of Kosovo is decided behind closed doors, far from the public eye, with only meaningless commonplaces released in the press. If anybody perhaps knows the answer, feel free to leave it in the comment box below.
Until then we wait and watch the events unfold.

Macedonia: The Game of the Name

Let's get it straight right at the beginning: Macedonia's name issue (excuse me, FYROM - Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia, before I would be taken wrong) dates from that very time when the country got independent from Yugoslavia in 1991. It was Greece that heavily disagreed with using the name 'Macedonia', as their northern region is also called Macedonia, and they charged the ex-Yugoslav country with expropriating Greek history and culture, especially that part which is connected to Alexander the Great. (Additionally there have been worries from the Greek side that the former member of Yugoslavia might have territorial issues with them.) After long debates the two countries agreed that the ex-YU member should use the name Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia (FYROM) so that they could join the international communities like UN and other countries will recognize them as a sovereign state.

Greek and Macedonian flags on the Foreign Ministry of Greece in 1998, when the two countries' ministers of foreign affairs tried (not for the first time, nor the last) to normalize the heavily broken diplomatic relations between the two countries

(photo: Simela Pantzartzi, EPA/BIRN)

Yet the country's name has been an issue since then. Macedonia keep itself committed to using the name 'Macedonia', while Greece in exchange use veto every time when the ex-YU country want to join the international communities, e.g. NATO or EU. There had been countless talks between the two countries, sometimes with UN-mediation, compromises (with heavy protests on both sides) and after more than 25 years full of negotiations, misunderstandings, diplomatic relations reaching lower than the lowest point, rallies and threatenings, it seems that the two countries might still reach the historical agreement.

Of course it's not that easy. (Nothing is easy in this region, and everything is much more complex as it seems first.)

This year, on 30th September Macedonia FYROM held a referendum on changing the country's name to Republic of Northern Macedonia. (Upon the long and often painful negotiations finally the two countries picked this compromise.)

Protesters in Bitola, Macedonia against the government's policy and the name changing of the country

(photo: Nake Batev, EPA-EFE/BIRN)

Well.
Only 36,87% of voters took the time and energy to go to the polls and give their votes. As at least 50% is needed for any referendum to be valid, this one was legally far from that. Still both sides - the government that organized the referendum and the oppositional VMRO-DPMNE (please, don't ask me to write their full name, you can find it here if you wish) - declared victory. VMRO said the referendum was a failure, and with this low turnout and the general lack of interest people made it clear that they want Macedonia to remain this current Macedonia. Meanwhile the governing party used that strange rhetorical tool in their communication that the 91% of that 36% of voters who still went to the polls gave their votes to 'Yes, please change from FYROM to North Macedonia', therefore the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (Socijaldemokratski sojuz na Makedonija) won.

This kind of communication is not unfamiliar in Eastern Europe. Don't get shocked, amazed or surprised - this is how it goes.

The Macedonian government needs at least two-third of the MP's to start the procedure of changing/adjusting the constitution about the name changing, so that they can start the negotiations with Greece. In the 120-member Sobranje (the Macedonian parliament) there are 71 MP's who will surely support the constitution changing, they are all members of the governing party. But Prime Minister Zoran Zaev needs at least 9 more MP's to have the two-third, and for this he needs to persuade members from the opposition to give their supporting votes at the parliamentary discussion. Prime minister Zaev is optimistic, but in case they fail to win the support of at least 9 opposition MP's, then in November there will be elections in Macedonia, where SDSM will heavily campaign for the 'Yes'.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev trying to persuade MP's in the Macedonian parliament

(photo: MIA)

The question immediately rises why it's so urgent that the government want elections within a bit more than a month. The answer is that early next year there will be elections in Greece and the current (left-winger) Greek government is willing to cooperate with Macedonia about the name change, but Zaev & Co. can't risk the possibility of a new and possibly right-winger Greek leadership that would surely halt the negotiations.

Zoran Zaev (left) with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras

(photo: Ludovic Marin, AFP/Getty Images)

A rally in Greece with 1,5 million protesters earlier this year against the name change of Macedonia

Meanwhile the EU put VMRO under pressure trying to convince them to support the name changing procedure. CDU, their German sister party urged them to join SDSM in voting for the constitutional change, because, as they said "they might risk the isolation of Macedonia from the European communities".

Update: the Macedonian interior minister has announced that they would start an investigation, as numerous opposition MP's got threatening SMS's from unknown phone numbers. These messages contain sometimes death threats against MP's as well as their family members. Those MP's who got threatenings are those who are thought to 'disobey the party's will' by possibly voting for the constitutional change. VMRO heavily denied the possibility that they might pressure or threaten their own MP's.

The story is far from the end, the next episode might come within 10-20 days. The blog follows the procedure and will inform you about every turn of the events.

Elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina: The Status Quo Officially Remains

Last Sunday (7th October) parlamentary elections were held in Bosnia-Herzegovina. People voted for the state presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the assembly (parliament) of both entities, the cantonal assembiles of the Federation entity, the presidency of RS and finally the state parliament.

Vote counting somewhere in a district

 (photo: Dado Ruvić, Reuters/slobodnaevropa.org)

For those readers who are not that familiar yet with the - sometimes really confusing - internal affairs of Bosnia-Herzegovina: The current state of the country is based in the Dayton Peace Agreement from 1995. It divides the country into two so-called entities, the Bosnian Serb Republic (Republika Srpska, or RS) with Serbian majority and the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina with Bosnian and Croatian inhabitants. Additionally there is a region named Brčko that - theoretically - belongs to both entities (practically it is under the direct control of the High Representative of the international community*) and serves as a kind of corridor between the two entities. Both entities have their own assembly as well as a joint parliament and the three communities - Bosnians, Serbs and Croatians - delegate one candidate to the state presidency.

*the High Representative of the international community is a position where the person in charge is appointed by the European Union to supervise the observation of rules laid in the Dayton Peace Agreement and to keep up the often very fragile peace among the three communities

Let's make it clear. In a country that is this much divided along so very different interests, where a very small tension, a misunderstood word or even a wrong look at the wrong time and wrong place is enough to make the very thin, very fragile peace explode, it is very hard to keep elections, to say the least.
It wasn't different this time either. Beside the almost usual fraud and manipulations (e.g. using deceased people's ID's to boost votes). There were reports about the lack of legal basis to elect the House of People in the Federation (which is practically the upper house of the Federation's parliament). Nevertheless the election was held with no major incidents, the voters could choose among 58 political parties, 36 coalitions and 34 independent candidates running for 518 parliamentary seats and positions.

In Tuzla the candidates' list had the size of a bed-sheet. In Doboj long rows were waiting to be able to give their votes

Still the participation was only 53% though knowing how much the citizens in both entities grew tired of all the political frauds, lies and corruption, it's still a good result. As for the result of the election itself, well, we can say, there was not much surprise at all. In the Bosnian Serb Republic (RS) again the political mastodon Milorad Dodik (SNSD) won the seat to the state presidency with 55,15% of votes. In his speech Dodik just had to mock his opponent Mladen Ivanić saying "I got more than 70 000 votes more than him; I expect that for the final result the difference will be more than 80 000". He thanked the support to all their coalition partners saying "not even 100 American or British ambassadors could have helped us as much as they did". Dodik called the difference between him and Ivanić "unattainable, even if all those Muslims went for [Ivanić] who had the right to vote". He added that he doesn't care who will be the two other members of the presidency, he will work only in the interest of Serbs, making it clear that teamwork is not really on his agenda.

On this image Dodik was pictured still in the electoral district, but the grin on his face on this point is still tensed...

photo: Darko Vojinović, Tanjug/AP/N1

...but later, celebrating his own victory, he even burst out in singing.
If you have the heart to listen.
From 0:25.

In the other entity, the candidate of the Bosnian party SDA (Stranka Demokratske Akcije, Party of Democratic Action), Šefik Džaferović got most of the votes (37,97%).

SDA is one of the earliest political parties of the post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina, founded in 1990 by Alija Izetbegović, who was the current president, Bakir Izetbegović's late father. Izetbegović Sr. was the Bosnian member of the presidency between 1992 and 2000, while Izetbegović Jr. has been the member of Bosnia-Herzegovina's presidency since 2010. This time he is succeeded by Šefik Džaferović, but he still keeps the presidency of his party SDA, which - as you can see - has a great routine in possessing the place in the country's presidency.

Of course Džaferović just had to mock the opponents in his victory speech saying "we are a responsible party that won't just walk out to the media like that". After that he just thanked everyone who voted for him, and it would have been a relatively modest event if the enthusiastic party supporters hadn't made a celebration with fireworks that actually interrupted the speech of president Izetbegović (but I doubt he got offended).

Just some modest celebration. Nothing special.

If there was any surprise, that was served by the Croatian community, where the candidate of the left-winger, social-democrat party DF (Demokratski Front - Democratic Front) Željko Komšić has earned the most votes, 49,47%.

This presidency membership isn't new for Komšić either, he has served between 2006 and 2014.

The reason why it was still a surprise is that everybody expected the right-winger, populist HDZ's candidate Dragan Čović to win again. Čović served twice in the presidency, first between 2002 and 2005, then from 2014 until now and during this election he got a very strong tail-wind from the party's mother organization in Croatia (their president Andrej Plenković visited Bosnia-Herzegovina during the campaign supporting Čović, but it seems that even that wasn't enough).
Komšić was straightforward in his victory speech. "Whether you voted for me or not, I'm your president" he said along with the usual acknowledgements and verbal flowers and fripperies.

Željko Komšić photographed in the voting booth

photo: STR/AFP/N1

Needless to say, none of the opposition parties were willing to accept the results of the elections. All of them demanded the re-count of votes and of course, mocking and verbally insulting the others, may they be parties or communities. Dragan Čović, the now former Croatian presidency member said "we, Croatians proved that we are a constitutive nation and we can think pro-European... pity that our Bosnian friends didn't understand it." Fahrudin Radoničić, leader of the centre-right party SBB (Savez za Bolju Budućnost - Association for a Better Future) said the election results are "questionable". Mladen Ivanić, Milorad Dodik's great opponent, who - upon the reports - for a short while was leading ahead of Dodik said "everywhere, where there were instruments to control [the elections], we won. I don't see whom would it bother to re-count the votes, at least in 10% of the voting booths."

Needless to say, right now there's no chance for re-counting the votes. As for the entity assemblies, the state parliament as well as those in the cantons, there's still no official result. All that we know that in the state parliament the majority will be SDA and SNSD, in the Federational Assembly SDA got the majority, as for the cantons, HDZ and SDA are in the leading position.
(Perhaps it will be the topic of another blogpost.)