After flames engulfed the halls of the closed down factory ‘Energoinvest-RAOP’ in East Sarajevo on Saturday evening, the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) expressed suspicions that foul play may be behind it.

Firefighters have the next morning put the blaze under control but the damage is yet to be determined.  

The fire caused concerns as it took broke out near a gas pipeline, with the Mayor of East Novo Sarajevo, Ljubisa Cosic, calling upon citizens who live near the factory to not spend time outside because of smoke hazard.  

“In this blaze, the largest hall burned down although the electricity was shut off there more than a year ago and machines were taken out of there which were then illegally sold in Zenica,” the party said, adding that more than seven criminal complaints were submitted over it in 2019 alone.  

The SDS said that Prosecutors in East Sarajevo and the Interior Affairs Ministry in Republika Srpska (RS, Bosnia’s Serb-majority part) never did anything to protect the property, including the machines which allegedly cost some 10 million Bosnian Marks.  

The party asked how it is possible for a fire to start in an empty hall from which machines belonging to the RS Government were stolen.  

The Serb Democratic Party expressed suspicion that the fire was to hide crimes which had for years been pushed under the carpet and called upon the Prosecutor's Office to urgently get involved and reveal the perpetrators behind this “years-long robbery.”