Bosnia's Presidency Chairman, Milorad Dodik, said on Thursday that if the prosecutors do not solve the murder of 21-year-old David Dragicevic, he will call upon citizens to stage a protest and chase them out of their Banja Luka offices.
“If in a month or two a decision is not made, I will invite the citizens to the Prosecutor's Office to kick all of them out of their offices because they're not doing their job,” said Dodik, the Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency, whom his opponents accused of being behind Tuesday’s police brutality during the detentions of members of a group which is protesting for months against the inefficiency of the police and prosecutors.
The tragic death of a young Dragicevic remains unsolved since his lifeless body was found in a river in March. Although officials initially qualified it as an accidental drowning, a new investigation conducted under public pressure showed it was a murder but the perpetrators have still not been identified.
The victim’s father, Davor Dragicevic, has been protesting for months, seeking justice for his son. He claims officials in Republika Srpska (RS), Bosnia's Serb-dominated semi-autonomous entity, were involved in the incident and were hiding the perpetrators, which turned the gatherings Dragicevic has been organising into mass anti-government protests.
“They were obliged to explain what it was all about, and not to make me or someone else do that. This is impermissible,” Dodik said about the prosecutors.
Dodik, who is the leader of the Alliance of Independent Social democrats (SNSD) which is in power in the RS, said the ‘Justice for David’ movement should exert democratic pressure on the prosecution and demand that the case is resolved.
“I am still prepared to sit down and talk with Davor Dragicevic, his team and any person representing ‘Justice for David’,” he said, expressing regret over the fact that Dragicevic had focused his anger against the RS institutions.
That is wrong, he said.
The Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into alleged omissions made in the Dragicevic case by a police officer, said Dodik, adding that there was no proof that Interior Minister Dragan Lukac was responsible and therefore he will not be dismissed.
