The "Gavrilo Princip" Organisation

At the end of December 2001, a number of prominent Sarajevo citizens active in the non-governmental organisation, the Serb Civilian Council, SGV, received letters threatening their lives and those of their families. The letter, sent from Belgrade, was signed by previously unheard of secret organisation called "Gavrilo Princip".

Most media in BiH published excerpts and a list of the recipients, many of whom were interviewed.  

Gavrilo Princip was the assassin who killed the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, the significance of which did not pass unnoticed. Reporter magazine referred to "Troikas by another name" (January 16, Asaf Becirovic). Troikas were the hitmen of the Serb Chetnik movement during World War Two.

"Eighty years after Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated, Gavrilo Princip has returned in the form of a secret organisation, which has handed death sentences to Mirko Pejanovic, President of the SGV, Bogic Bogicevic, Miro Lazovic, Boro Bjelobrk, Tatjana Lujic-Mijatovic (all members of the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia-Herzegovina, SDP BiH), retired general Jovan Divjak, Obrad Piljak, Dragutin Kosovac, Zoran Zegar and the priest Krstan Bijeljac," it commented.

The letter urged all Serbs, no matter where they live, to form their own "troikas" and "fight for Serbs, Serb concerns and the Serb homeland". Serbs who remained in Sarajevo during the war were denounced as "traitors to the Serb nation", "Turkish bootlickers" and "the detritus of a dignified nation". According to the "Gavrilo Princip" group, the Serbs in question have become Turks, and through their political activities have helped the Serbs' greatest enemies - western European countries, the USA, Croats, Muslims, Albanians, Slovenes, Hungarians and Turks.

According to one of the recipients, Zoran Zegar, the letter was cooked up by some "warped minds" from the nationalistic wing of the Serb Democratic Party, SDS. "It is a last-ditch attempt by extremists to destabilise BiH, to achieve in peacetime what they could not manage through war," he said.

Becirovic called for the members of the organisation to be unmasked, and at the end of his article raised the question of whether Gavrilo Princip was a freedom-fighter or a common murderer. No answer was given, but the posing of the question left no doubt as to the author's own view - it is well known that while radical Serbs think Princip fought for the freedom of the Serb nation, most Bosniaks and Croats regard him as a criminal assassin.

After condemning the threats, Oslobodjenje wrote ironically about the possible members of the "Gavrilo Princip" group. From their hiding place in an "unknown shack", these people had sentenced to death the small number of Serbs to have recognised Bosnia as their homeland. Author Ramo Kolar suggested they were terrorists, who after the ethnic cleansing of non-Serb citizens from Republika Srpska, were extending their remit.

"They committed crimes in Srebrenica, and before that they killed people in Bijeljina, Zvornik, Foca, Brcko, Prijedor, and Kljuc. They shelled the city of Sarajevo for four years, killed people as they collected water on the streets," he wrote, adding that in peacetime such people have greeted Bosniak returnees with hand grenades, while their ideological figurehead Radovan Karadzic hides in the forests of Bosnia. 

This article accused local and entity authorities in RS of deliberately shirking their duty to arrest Karadzic. Kolar articulated the desire of Sarajevans to see those responsible for their suffering during the war - notably Karadzic and his followers - arrested and sentenced for war crimes. He commented that seeing those men still at large is more painful for most people than the threats received by Serb leaders in Sarajevo.

The threatening letters were viewed as part of the Greater Serbia project of uniting RS to Serbia, at the expense of Bosnia. "That is why 'Gavrilo Princip' was created, to threaten those Serbs and others who favour Bosnia and Herzegovina as a country of citizens and nations with equal rights."

Oslobodjenje implied that the RS authorities were also carrying out the orders of their sponsors in Serbia "to obstruct the existence of the state of BiH" and to fight for the goal of "all Serbs in one state" and promote the view that those Serbs who choose to live in Bosnia "should be liquidated".

Nezavisne novine took the threats and their possible repercussions very seriously. R Adzovic warned that, "The self-proclaimed terrorist organisation 'Gavrilo Princip' has extended the list of Serbs 'condemned to death' ". He then recalled the 1999 incident when a grenade was planted under the car of  Nezavisne's owner Zeljko Kopanja, in Banja Luka. Kopanja was seriously injured, both his legs had to be amputated.

The threats were also taken seriously by the Sarajevo police, who asked Interpol and the Yugoslav police to help them track down the authors. "Officially Belgrade knows nothing about 'Gavrilo Princip'," Avdic wrote. "But since Belgrade is a nest of criminals, it is possible that such groups do function there, as can be seen by the disappearance of Ivan Stambolic. Only a well-organised group of criminals could have pulled that off." Well-known Belgrade politician Ivan Stambolic, an opponent of the Milosevic regime, disappeared 20 months ago. His fate is unknown.

Milan Obradovic, chief of the Belgrade police, was quoted saying that "We will take all necessary measures to investigate this case and find out if 'Gavrilo Princip' really exists and who its members are. Even if it was a bad joke, it is still a criminal act and its authors should be charged".

The harshest condemnation of the threatening letters came from Slobodna Bosna, on January 10. The paper was surprised by the fact that none of the RS political or religious leaders had condemned the terrorists, along with all those in favour of terrorism as a means of solving political or national disputes. "None of the Orthodox dignitaries in Republika Srpska and Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina have condemned the Serb terrorists, who belong to Orthodox church and who are ready to kill others for holding different political attitudes, or because they are more tolerant of other nations."

The magazine also condemned a statement from the religious leader of the Bosnian Orthodox Serbs, Metropolitan Nikolaj, who said that Serbs and orthodox clergy in the Federaration of BiH were in danger. Metropolitan Nikolaj announced that he might order his clergy to leave the Federation, which could cause a large number of orthodox believers to follow. Slobodna Bosna reminded its readers that Sarajevo has been the headquarters of the Bosnian Metropolitan for over 300 years and that the government of the Federation of BiH has invested Euro 350,000.00 in the reconstruction of the building. "Metropolitan Nikolaj has announced that Orthodox priests might leave the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This would have difficult consequences and cause many Orthodox believers to leave the Federation. It is not understood why Metropolitan Nikolaj has made such a statement, not least since it is well known that his office in Sarajevo is one of the most luxurious."

Dnevni avaz joined in the condemnation of terrorist threats in an interview with Mirko Pejanovic, the president of SGV. "Through this letter, extreme nationalists have shown their intention to terrorise individuals and organisations, just because we support equality and a common life for all nationalities in BiH," said Pejanovic.

This daily saw the threats as a warning shot which should move the RS authorities to arrest former leader Radovan Karadzic as soon as possible. 

Federation television (FTV) described the letters and the Metropolitan's announcement as "an attack on the stability of a democratic and multi-ethnic BiH". Recipients of the letters were interviewed. 

RTRS broadcast only reports from news agencies and statements from the SGV. No commentary or opinions were added. 

Almost all the media in BiH covered the letters. Some media also took the opportunity to air their political views and assessments on the stability of BiH. Print media in the Federation of BiH repeated well-known opinions about the guilt of Bosnian Serbs, their leaders and agitators from Serbia over the war. The opportunity was also taken to warn local and international forces in BiH that war crimes suspects should be arrested and delivered to the Hague Tribunal. 

Only Glas srpski readers would have missed the story. For this hardline nationalist daily, Serbs who choose to live in the Federation of BiH simply do not exist, so the paper ignored the incident. 

With the exception of Glas srpski, the media in BiH generally played a positive role in this case, condemning anything which threatened the unity the country. Most coverage, apart from Slobodna Bosna's and Nezavsine novine's harsh criticism of the reactions of Serbia-proper and the Serbian Orthodox Church, sent out clear messages in favour of common existence and tolerance among the nations of BiH. The media blamed the incident on extremist groups and urged local authorities and representatives of the international community in BiH to take action against such developments.