15.01.2015

BalkanInsight

 

The proposal to remove Dzaferovic from his position over claims that he did not report war crimes by Bosniak forces against Serbs while he was a police commander in Zenica during the 1992-95 conflict was blocked on Thursday.

 

The leading Bosnian Serb party, the Union of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, put forward the proposal for Dzaferovic’s sacking, but it failed to get on the agenda for the parliamentary session because only one other party voted in favour.

 

But Stasa Kosarac, an SNSD delegate, said that his party would continue to ask for Dzaferovic’s removal because the allegations against him were “well-founded”.

 

“Dzaferovic is supposed to represent the House of Representatives, but he cannot do so with this wartime baggage, in which he is suspected of hiding evidence and refusing to prosecute war crimes against Serbs,” said Kosarac.

 

The controversy started when outgoing deputy Federation president Mirsad Kebo, a former member of Dzaferovic’s Party of Democratic Action, SDA, said this week that he had sent allegedly incriminating army and police documents to the state prosecution office with a criminal complaint about wartime crimes against Serb civilians in Vozuca, near Zavidovici.

 

Kebo claimed that the documents mention the names of Dzaferovic and other people who “knew about war crimes and did not report them, which they had an obligation to do”.

 

Dzaferovic said that the allegations were “filthy lies and monstrous constructions”.

 

“I reject all of it. If any case is started against me, I will step aside, no one will have to vote on my removal,” he told journalists.

 

The SDA party also issued a statement saying that Kebo’s claims and documents were false.

 

Kebo said on Wednesday that the Bosnian prosecution had summoned him to give a statement next week, which he was looking forward to doing. “The prosecutor’s office has shown itself to be very professional so far,” he said.

 

Dzaferovic said however that was certain that the Bosnian prosecution would find that Kebo’s allegations were false and that he was planning to file a criminal complaint against his ex-colleague for “false reporting”.

 

Denis Dzidic BIRN Sarajevo

 

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/bosnian-parliament-rejects-dzaferovic-removal