Two dozen or so members of Fatherland Movement "Obraz” from Serbia provoked series of incidents yesterday, in Bratunac and Srebrenica, during the observations of the suffering of Serbs from the Birač area. In Bratunac, they took down the Bosnia and Herzegovina flag from the municipal building and tore it. While passing through Srebrenica, they shouted slogans and sang songs with rather inappropriate contents.

A group of Bosniaks, irritated by the provocations, responded with chants “This is Bosnia”, and the members of the Police force reacted timely to prevent physical contact between the two groups and escorted the Obraz members out of Srebrenica.

Miladin Dragičević, advisor to Milorad Dodik, PM of the Republic of Srpska, expressed his bitterness and disappointment over the actions that are totally unwanted and shouldn’t have happened on the day when respect is paid to the dead. “We didn’t need this, and the stain goes on the organizer of the gathering in Bratunac”, Dragičević said.

The Obraz Movement grew from the “Serbski Obraz” publishing house, established in 1994 with the blessing of the bishop Danilo Krstić of the Serb Orthodox Church. The founder and first president was Nebojša M. Krstić, sociologist and theologian, who was killed in 2001 in a traffic accident.

In 2001, the organiyation published its Declaration to the Enemies - Enemies of the Serbs, which listed insults to the „Ustaša“, „Muslim extremists“ and „Albanian terrorists“. The list of enemies of Serbs includes the Zionists, false peacemakers, party-goers, sectarians, perverts, drug-addicts and criminals.

Serbian Ministry of the Interior and the Committee on Security of the Assembly of the Province of Vojvodina listed Obraz among clero-fascist organizations, in a joint communiqué released in 2005. Its members, however, dismiss such qualifications and call themselves “nationalist followers of St. Sava (the major Serbian saint and founder of Serbian medieval state and church).