Crime and Politics

Balkan Insight article:
"Tensions are running high in Mostar, in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, following the murder of a member of a local radical Muslim Wahhabi sect."
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/21182/


DOSTA! movement press statement: Stop hate speech now!

The DOSTA! movement strongly condemns the recent murder of Magdi Dizdarević, a young man from Mostar who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and paid with his life for his attempt to help a man in trouble.

We demand that the relevant agencies do their job, conduct the investigation and promptly bring the guilty to justice. It is a disgrace that Magdi's murderers are freely moving about Mostar, while the police, in spite of many eye witnesses, announce that the investigation will take months and that they have no basis on which to apprehend suspects. Our streets are already filled with murders who walk at liberty and unaccused criminals, while ordinary citizens increasingly fear for their own personal safety on those same streets. This is the last chance for those in authority to finally take on their responsibilities.

We invite all actors in the public sphere to abstain from inappropriate and rude commentary by which they want to use this tragedy to spread hate speech, creating new divisions in society and political marketing. We call on our fellow citizens not to allow the loss of yet another human life to be justified for any kind of reasons or to use it as a means to incite further violence. It is saddening and frightening that the need exists at all to remind people to be human. But that is exactly what we most need to be.

We hope that citizens of Mostar will show that they have enough human solidarity and civic responsibility not only to insist that the responsible authorities take action immediately, but also that they come forward with any information they might have, in order that Magdi's killers will be apprehended as soon as possible.