Synchronized media attacks on the “Justice for David” protests, which have erupted especially since the start of the election campaign, have been given a new target this week. The target is Samir Sadikovic from Bugojno, who was declared a criminal, a butcher, and part of a “group of inserted Serbian murderers” due to his support to Davor Dragicevic.
The website Infosrpska was launched in June this year and has already managed to draw a lot of public attention, both with its inciting texts and the fact that they are regularly aired and promoted by RTRS, the entity’s public service. Infosrpska is a website without a single name or indication of the identity of the owners, editors and authors of the propaganda texts that have been particularly intense since the start of the election campaign. Even though entirely anonymous, this website soon after its launch has become a regular source for Radio Television of Republika Srpska and Srna – two publicly owned media outlets. The third prominent regular broadcaster of their content is Banja Luka-based Alternative Television.
In the past month, the connection between the anonymous website, the public news agency, one public and one private television has been operating according to an already established and recognizable pattern:
- Events that are for any reason unfavorable for the SNSD and the election campaign of its candidates are first “processed” by “Infosrpska”. Here, in complete anonymity – without any authorial or editorial responsibility – they deal in the most brutal way with dissidents or critics of the party in power in Republika Srpska, and they are accused of planning coups, various “attacks” and conspiracies against Republika Srpska and/or or Milorad Dodik, with undisguised hate speech and incitement of national intolerance.
- The media attacks then continue on RTRS, Srna and ATV, which take such articles from Infosrpska and publish them on their websites the same day – sometimes only a few minutes apart. From the “most explosive” ones, there are also articles that are broadcast in RTRS news programs.
Since August 18, when RTRS took an article from Infosrpska, titled “Under the Magnifying Glass of ‘Soros” – attempts to cast doubt on the regularity of the elections, this television has published 14 similar texts, without distancing from the content full of unverified claims and hate speech.Â
RTRS never answered our questions about whether they check the accuracy of the information they transmit from Infosrpska, why they consider an anonymous website to be a credible source of information, and whether they are aware of the identity of the people behind Infosrpska.
How one becomes a “butcher” and a “criminal” on the public service
The latest target of such “reporting” is Samir Sadikovic, a demobilized soldier from Bugojno. Sadikovic is very active on Facebook and his profile on this social network represents a kind of a chronicle of the protests of demobilized soldiers that took place in the Federation of BiH in the past months (and years). In addition to the veterans, Sadikovic actively supports the protests initiated by the parents of the three young people who died violent deaths – Danijela Arandjelovic from Tuzla, Dzenan Memic from Sarajevo and David Dragicevic from Banja Luka. In all three cases, parents are trying to put pressure on the police and prosecutors through protests, as they believe that the deaths of their children have not been adequately investigated and prosecuted.
At the beginning of July, Sadikovic posted for the first time on his profile a photo of himself standing next to Davor Dragicevic, the father of the murdered David Dragicevic. Both Dragicevic and Sadikovic were participants in the war, one in the RS Army, the other in the RBiH Army, which Sadikovic referred to in the photo’s description.
Over the next two months, Sadikovic posted several more photos with Davor Dragicevic, with similar protest messages.
One of them drew the attention of a certain Goran Stamenkovic, who, on the evening of September 19, 2018, posted the same photo in the Facebook group “Foreign Agency in Serbia”. He wrote next to thephoto that Sadikovic was “the commander of the 4th Battalion of the Bugojno Brigade” who supports Vukota Govedarica and, as it was ironically stated, “he is worried about the Republika Srpska”. The next day, Sadikovic posted a screenshot of the post on his profile, which was accompanied by a series of ridiculing comments about the above-mentioned claims and the implied participation of Sadikovic in the “demolition of RS”.
Twelve hours after having been posted in the group “Foreign Agency in Serbia”, the photo was published on the website Infosrpska. We do not know whether the allegations that were made in the comment were taken from this or some other closed Facebook group, or if it is a statement that Infosrpska simply made up to justify the publication of the photo. However, these few sentences were used to launch an avalanche of attacks on Samir Sadikovic, with the aim of discrediting Davor Dragicevic and the “Justice for David” protests:
SAMIR SADIKOVIC-SELA COMMANDER OF THE 4TH BATTALION OF THE BUGOJAN BRIGADE OF THE SO-CALLED ARMY OF BIH AND DAVOR DRAGICEVIC WHO LEADS THE PROTESTS
What unites the two of them? The notorious Samir Sadikovic, commander of the so-called BiH Army, which was killing Serb civilians, children, women and Davor Dragicevic, who is in the embrace of a Serb butcher Samir Sadikovic. After having embraced the leaders of the opposition, now an embrace with the Serbian butcher. Where does all this lead.
Milan Jovic, a soldier in the Republika Srpska army
The text in which Sadiković is called a “Serbian butcher” was published by SRNA within two hours and then by RTRS and ATV. In the title of its article, RTRS even surpassed Infosrpska, adding the claim that “Dragicevic and Sadikovic are leading protests”, which was not actually said in the original article.
The same procedure was repeated a day later: a photo from Facebook, an article on Infosrpska website and an identical “chain of transmission” of the new accusations against Sadikovic – in line with Milorad Dodik’s claims that the protests in Banja Luka were organized by foreign intelligence services, American ambassador in BiH and similar:
We are talking about the veterans who killed innocent Serbian children, women, the elderly, who, as many photos show, are embracing Davor Dragicevic, the father of the tragically killed David Dragicevic. Are they in Banja Luka to show solidarity with Davor Dragicevic or are they a sign that a scenario is being prepared there, like the one from Majdan, whose main protagonists will be exactly them, hardcore Serbian assassins and snipers like Edo Barjaktarevic, Hamza Krkalic, Fahrudin Mehinovic and others, who are at the protests almost every day and are probably preparing for a more radical scenario.
The text points out that “the answer to this might be given by the Intelligence and Security Agency/OBA / of BiH or some of the western embassies, that is services that have been ‘performing’ in Banja Luka for months and which sent these criminals to Banja Luka”.
“But there is no doubt that the answer to that could be given by the unfortunate father of the victim David, Davor? Is it possible that he seeks justice for David with the murderers of Serbian children and innocent civilians in the past war? What are those butchers, who gather under the slogan ‘And my blood for my Bosnia’ doing in T-shirts of the group ‘Justice for David’, running around Banja Luka and taking photos, as the photo shows, and not far from President Dodik’s office? What kind of ‘justice’ are they looking for, we can certainly assume”, it is emphasized in the text published by Infosrpska.
The story of “snipers” and “butchers” at the protests in Banja Luka, as expected, spread like wildfire on numerous internet profiles and Facebook groups and pages. Sadikovic reacted to the whole chase, again via his profile on this social network, inviting RTRS journalists to come to Bugojno and see how the “commander” accused of conspiracies against RS lives, but also inviting friends to gather evidence of defamation against him, so that he could file a lawsuit against this television.
From Sadikovic’s post, and from the comments he left in the discussion below, it is more than clear that he was talking about a lawsuit, and not about any physical attack on journalists. However, this choice of words served the website Infosrpska well for the new attack. It is probably unnecessary to list who and how quickly it published the third – and so far the most repugnant – text about Sadikovic in the past three days. This time, along with Davor Dragicevic, the protesters and the “intelligence services”, the text also included opposition parties, as well as TV Bijeljina.
BOSNIAK CRIMINALS THREATEN RTRS JOURNALISTS
Commander of the 4th Battalion of the Bugojno Brigade of the so-called Army of B&H Samir Cela Sadikovic, who along with his war comrades became famous for crimes against Serbs in the past war, Edin Barjaktarevic, Hamza Krkalic, Fahrudin Mehinovic and some others, spend days in Banja Luka and present the hit squad of the “Justice for David” movement, sent threats to RTRS journalists via his Facebook profile yesterday.
“RTRS is attacking me” says, among other things, on his Facebook profile, this notorious criminal against the Serb civilians, and adds “now the commander is going to attack the RTRS journalists”.Â
Is the announced attack on the RTRS journalists of the hardcore Serbian murderer and criminal only a part of the scenario that is taking place under the auspices of the protest of the group “Justice for David” and whether a group of Serbian murderers from the Federation was involved in staging “sparks” that would, with the already publicly expressed support of the leaders of the Alliance for Victory, instrumentalize the masses for the violent occupation of symbolic centers of power in the Republika Srpska ?!
This is a question to which, without a doubt, the answer knows for sure the director of the BiH Intelligence and Security Action (OBA-OSA) Osman Mehmedagic Osmica, a former bodyguard of Alija Izetbegovic. But definitely his mentors from certain Western services that advocate for the “soft coup d’etat” in Republika Srpska, abusing the tragic death of David Dragicevic and trying to manipulate the grief of the unfortunate father Davor Dragicevic, in an attempt to form a mass popular movement – a strong “goliath” to participate in actions of civil disobedience.
The tragedy is that after the attack on RTRS journalists by Davor Dragicevic himself, the leader of the Alliance for Victory, some non-governmental organizations and the striking media squad of the “soft coup d’etat” in Republika Srpska, long ago recruited RTV BN, RTRS journalists found themselves the target of the butcher of the Serbian people as well.
We contacted Sadikovic via Facebook and asked him to comment on the texts and the above-mentioned articles published by Infosrpska, RTRS and Alternative Television. Sadikovic denied that any of the people in the photos used for these texts were snipers in the war, as he denied all other allegations about his military rank, war past and the “conspiracies” attributed to him and the planning of “coups”:
Now let me tell you a little about myself. If I had bloody hands, I would never have the decency to look into the eyes of any Serbs, because that’s how I am. And my war journey goes like this – I was a member of the JNA until June ’92, where I was with 27,000 reservists, the Tito Uzice Corps. After I left the JNA in September, I joined the Army of BiH, Omer’s first troop. I stayed there for maybe a year and after the conflict with the Croats I joined the scouts, where I stayed until the end of the war.
Never in my life, the chances I’ve had to be someone … I said no, I don’t need bloody hands, and I’ve always been ready to go to Zagreb, to Belgrade, to Banja Luka. And (if) anyone finds that Cela even roughhoused someone in the war, let them shoot me immediately, and I have never been afraid of anyone but dear God. And I will die for justice and I say again that I am always on the side of justice.
And let me say this – if they think that I am a commander, let them come to my house, let them see how Cela lives in 25 square meters with 5 family members and how he goes to the office for unemployment together with his two sons. And I’ve never been a nationalist, nor am I interested in that. I do not like Bosniaks, Croats or Serbs, I love Muslims, Catholics, Orthodox.
Sadikovic also told us that none of the media that declared him a “butcher” and a “Serbian killer” had ever contacted him before publishing such allegations. Including the public service, which has been participating in the open chase for days, which is being conducted in the most appalling way possible. He also reiterated that he plans to file a defamation lawsuit against RTRS and the other media that published such content.
The articles presented in this text, in which a whole series of untruths and misinformation were presented without a single piece of evidence, are rated as publishing fake news, biased reporting and conspiracy theory.
(Author: Tijana Cvjetićanin, Raskrinkavanje.ba)
