BAN HARUN HODŽIĆ FROM VISITING JANJA

BIJELJINA, JULY 31 /SRNA/ - The veterans' association Garda Panteri stated that it expects the Council of the local community of Janja in Bijeljina and the police to ban the participation of Harun Hodžić, wartime assistant commander for morale of the 7th Muslim Brigade, at the event Summer Evenings of Janja.

The association strongly condemned the attempt by the Bosniak Cultural and Artistic Society Mula Alija Sadiković from Janja to invite Hodžić to the event, "as he was one of the commanders of the notorious `Black Swans` unit and is known for his radical views during and after the war, especially due to his wartime lectures on the Islamization of the army." "We believe that Hodžić's lectures and his arrival would disturb the good relations between Serbs and Bosniaks in Janja, and we therefore expect the Council of the Janja local community and the police to ban his appearance," the statement from the Garda Panteri Association said. The association emphasized that they are particularly disappointed that the president of the cultural and artistic society from Janja Azem Aletović invites increasingly radical individuals to this event every year, thus increasing ethnic tensions in the area. "We want to remind the public that there have been multiple incidents involving the tearing of flags and the disparagement of Republika Srpska. If the institutions do not respond, we are ready to prevent the appearance of this radical Bosniak war commander by all legal means," the statement reads. Harun Hodžić, an effendi and former member of the Seventh Muslim Brigade, is publicly known for a number of brutal crimes committed in Central Bosnia. In 2023, during a lecture at a mosque in Nemila near Zenica, in the company of informal Wahhabi leader Nezim Halilović, he compared BiH to Gaza, saying that "shooting clubs should be turned into an army". "Every child should be trained in shooting, not with any ambition to threaten anyone, but with only one goal – to make sure Gaza doesn't happen to us again," said Hodžić, adding that hunting associations should bring in retired members of the so-called Army of BiH and drive out those who drink alcohol. Hodžić thanked God that BiH has a sufficient number of shooting clubs and added that he was preparing a gift for his daughter before her wedding – a pistol.