The rights of Serbs in the Muslim-Croatian entity, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, are being massively and continuously violated by destroying and seizing their property, desecrating their cemeteries, and often putting their lives. In danger, the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Serbs in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina pointed out today in an open letter to the institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Srpska, and embassies.

The Committee reminded of the recent murder of 65-year-old Nada Radulović, who had returned to Visoko, as well as the physical assault on Savo Bilanović, returnee to Busovača, which occurred after repeated harassment, attacks on property and arson.

Threats are a constant occurrence in nearly every municipality in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which turn from verbal to physical attacks on Serbs, said the Committee’s open letter, adding that according to the available information, Orthodox buildings and cemeteries on the territory of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina are desecrated once a month on average.

The letter stated that there were about 1,100 locations with Orthodox cemeteries in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the Serbs who visit them on Orthodox holidays each year testify that gravestones find themselves targeted by vandalism. The Committee listed all of the locations where a Serbian cemetery had been desecrated.

As the letter pointed out, the procedure of harmonizing land registers and cadasters is being carried out in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2014, where the establishment and replacement of land registers for individual cadastral municipalities is carried out  in such a way that the announcement of the establishment and replacement of land registers is made only in the Official Gazettes of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in two daily newspapers with headquarters in Sarajevo and Mostar.

The Committee said that by doing things that way, the Serbs who used to live in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and now live in Serbia or other countries in Europe or in the world have no way of knowing that a new land register is being established for their property.

Even though the Annex No. 7 guaranteed the return or property or reimbursing the value of the property, we are currently in a situation where the 2013 Census determined that 163 settlements in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina where Serbs used to be the majority now have no residents, they are uninhabited. This annex is completely unattainable for Serbs in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and its authorities are not working on renovating homes and auxiliary facilities owned by Serbs, pointed out the Committee.

The open letter stressed that Serbs in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina are being denied their basic human rights to the freedom of thought, conscience and religion, citing the example that the police in Bosanski Petrovac fined the participants in a procession celebrating Christmas Eve, the police officers who participated in the procession were suspended from the Ministry of Interior of the Una-Sana Canton, and minors wearing the insignia of the state of Serbia were fined 500 KM each for a misdemeanor filed as disturbing the public.

The letter also pointed out that the right to education, which is also guaranteed by the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is exceptionally difficult to attain for Serbian children in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as that it is widely known that Serbian children in Glamoč are not being taught the Cyrillic alphabet.

In the rest of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, children have difficult or nearly no access to Orthodox religious education, and that the Serbian language and the Cyrillic alphabet are not being taught in a sufficient share of classes, so Serbian children complete elementary school without having learned their — Cyrillic — alphabet, said the Committee.

The educational system in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, pointed out the Committee, is treating the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a Great Serbian aggression and puts the blame for the war in the hands of the Serbian people, which makes it difficult for Serbs to claim their rights.

The right to objective information via the public media, which is secured by numerous international conventions and agreements is unattainable for Serbs, said the Committee, adding that the content of the informational and documentary program on the Radio-Television of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is thoroughly concerning.

They also pointed out that 152 streets in Sarajevo were renamed because they had the prefix “Serbian” in their names or were associated with the Serbian people.

In the last 27 years in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the public space, in the politicians’ speeches, in the activities of prominent individuals and groups, there has been no space for the horrific historic suffering that happened to the Serbs in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, reminded the open letter.

There was no place, the letter added, for those who had died in cities and villages between 1992 and 1995, nor for those who were basically forced, over three months in 1992, to abandon their centuries-old ancestral homes and historic hometowns, with nearly nothing.

The letter also cited the data saying that according to the 1991 Census, 542,879 Serbs lived in the territory of today’s Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whereas on the 2013 Census there were 56,550 Serbs; and that Serbs were the majority nation on 32,2% of the Federation per the 1991 Census. 785 populated places in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina had a Serbian majority, and Serbs counted for 20-40% of the population in another 620 populated places.

The open letter was addressed to the Serbian Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Milorad Dodik, the other two Members of the Presidency, the President of the Republic of Srpska, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska, the President and Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the embassies of Serbia, Croatia, the United States of America, the Russian Federation, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the European Union delegation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.