SULJAGIĆ ATTACKS REPUBLIKA SRPSKA, WHILE A BOSNIAK INTEREST-DRIVEN FINANCIAL CONFLICT AT THE SREBRENICA MEMORIAL CENTER LIES BEHIND IT ALL

SARAJEVO, AUGUST 10 /SRNA/ - The list of employees and associates of the Srebrenica Memorial Center, based on which the Republika Srpska Ministry of the Interior has been questioning people in recent days, was provided to the Republika Srpska police by the Memorial Center itself, the Istraga portal reports, pointing out that behind the entire affair lies the continuation of a conflict between Center Director Emir Suljagić and Hamdija Fejzić, chairman of the institution’s Governing Board.

According to the same source, the list contains the names of 26 current and former employees and associates of the Srebrenica Memorial Center, seven of whom have been questioned in recent days at the Srebrenica Police Station on the orders of the District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Bijeljina. The official explanation for the questioning is that information is being gathered as part of an investigation conducted by the Bijeljina Prosecutor’s Office into tax evasion. According to the Istraga portal, at the heart of the matter is the question of who provided the relevant institutions with the list containing the personal details of people who had been engaged by the Memorial Center for years, and how the document made its way from the institution to the police. Some of the names on the list had previously been published by Vojin Mijatović, the federal Minister of Development, Entrepreneurship and Crafts. At the beginning of 2025, Mijatović published on social media details of the fees paid to certain individuals engaged by the Memorial Center, including BiH’s ambassador to the UN, Zlatko Lagumdžija. Alongside the document, Mijatović also posted what he claimed was correspondence with Hamdija Fejzić, chairman of the Center’s Governing Board, showing that Fejzić had sent him the list. Emir Suljagić, director of the Memorial Center, publicly responded at the time, claiming that the engagement of external associates was related to off-budget project activities funded by external donors, and that all projects, including the allocation of donor funds, had been subject to audits and external evaluations. Suljagić claimed at the time that Mijatović had used the Memorial Center’s internal documents for a political vendetta and that he had been “prompted by the person who chairs the Memorial Center’s Governing Board” to pursue the matter. Fejzić had access to a list containing personal details, part of which was published by Mijatović and which would later emerge in connection with the investigation by the Bijeljina Prosecutor’s Office after it was “anonymously” forwarded to the Republika Srpska Ministry of Interior. According to information obtained by the Istraga portal, at an emergency session of the Governing Board of the Srebrenica Memorial Center held in early August, a majority of the members insisted that the Governing Board should collectively distance itself from the document that ended up with the Republika Srpska Ministry of Interior. It was pointed out that the members of the Governing Board had never officially been given access to the disputed list, while they openly stressed that they did not want to become victims of the dispute between Suljagić and Fejzić or of their personal differences. The years-long conflict between Emir Suljagić and Hamdija Fejzić escalated in the spring of 2024, when Suljagić reported that Fejzić had threatened him during a telephone conversation, telling him that he would "deal with him." The Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies /DKPT/ recorded allegations of pressure being exerted on Suljagić by individuals close to Fejzić at the time, while Suljagić was going through the procedure for his appointment as director of the Memorial Center. Shortly after Suljagić’s report to the DKPT, Hamdija Fejzić temporarily stepped down as chairman of the Governing Board of the Srebrenica Memorial Center - officially, due to his candidacy for mayor of Srebrenica. However, the conflict between Suljagić and Fejzić flared up again last year after Mijatović published details of the fees paid to associates of the Memorial Center. A year and a half later, part of the same story has now resurfaced as part of an investigation, this time in a much more serious form.