(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Wolfgang Petritsch and Sredoje Novic, the international community’s civilian high representative and the minister of the interior of the Serbian entity in Bosnia, respectively, RSF has expressed its deep indignation concerning the assassination attempt on journalist Zeljko Kopanja in Banja Luka. “We ask the civilian high representative, Mr. Petrisch, […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Wolfgang Petritsch and Sredoje Novic, the
international community’s civilian high representative and the minister of
the interior of the Serbian entity in Bosnia, respectively, RSF has
expressed its deep indignation concerning the assassination attempt on
journalist Zeljko Kopanja in Banja Luka. “We ask the civilian high
representative, Mr. Petrisch, to launch an inquiry on this incident under
his authority and to use his influence towards finding those responsible for
this assassination attempt and bringing them to justice as soon as
possible,” said Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. RSF
also demanded that authorities in Bosnia’s Serbian entity do everything
possible to assure the safety of journalists in the territory.
On 22 October 1999, Kopanja, editor-in-chief of the Bosnian Serb independent
newspaper “Nezavisne Novine”, was seriously injured in a bomb attack. A bomb
was placed in the journalist’s car and exploded when he started the car. He
lost both his legs and suffered serious injuries to his abdomen. His
newspaper recently published a series of articles on war crimes committed by
Serbs against Muslims at the beginning of the Bosnian war. “Nezavisne
Novine”, which publishes daily and weekly editions, is a newspaper close to
moderate political circles in the Serbian Republic and is opposed to
nationalists. On 9 June, the daily and weekly editions of the newspaper were
barred by police from entering neighbouring Serbia (see IFEX alert of 10
June 1999).
