FM Crnadak assesses Ambassador Hajric's words as 'dangerous and irresponsible'

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Ambassador's statement comparing the New Zealand terrorist attack with the war crimes in Srebrenica is aimed against coexistence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Foreign Minister Igor Crnadak said on Friday, warning that such statements are “dangerous and irresponsible.”

“Terrorist attack on two mosques in New Zealand is a monstrous crime committed against people who prayed to God in peace. Brutality and treachery of this terrorist attack should remind us that the fight against all kinds of terrorism must never stop,” said the minister in a statement condemning the Friday terrorist attack in New Zealand.

He condemned the way in which Mirza Hajric, Bosnia's Ambassador in that country commented on the tragic event.

In a statement for N1, Ambassador Hajric said earlier on Friday that a recording which was briefly available on social media and which showed the killer on the way towards the mosques where he committed the massacre, was especially concerning for Bosnians.

According to Hajric, what could be seen on the video was the killer listening to the Serb nationalist songs, glorifying the wartime Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and calling for the killing of “Ustashas and Turks.”

“He is picking up the guns and killing dozens of people. The recording is horrible. We simply can’t comprehend it although we have in the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina been witnesses to such scenes. The images of Srebrenica and the massacre are coming back,” Hajric said.

But according to Crnadak, there is no room for such comments.

“The statement of Ambassador Mirza Hajric which connects the terrorist attack in New Zealand with the crime in Srebrenica and with Bosnia and Herzegovina is disgusting and aimed against coexistence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which can be seen from anti-Serb hysteria the statement triggered in part of Sarajevo-based media,” said the minister, assessing such comments as “dangerous and very irresponsible.”

“I call on all people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, both in Republika Srpska and Federation (two Bosnia's semi-autonomous regions), to condemn this terrorist attack and to truly and peacefully sympathise with the families of the killed ones,” said the foreign minister.

The death toll of the Friday attack on two mosques in the town of Christchurch has risen to 49, local authorities confirmed. Four people were detained and one of them was charged with the murders, said the police.

The Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Australia, which covers New Zealand as well, confirmed for media that no Bosnian nationals were among the killed or the injured in the Friday attack.

Out of ten Bosnian nationals who live in Christchurch, nobody was present at the site of the accident.