MOSTAR, FEBRUARY 9 (ONASA) – The Mostar police again banned anti-fascists from walking through the city on the occasion of celebrating February 14 – the day of Mostar’s liberation from fascism in the Second World War, announced the Association of Anti-Fascists and Fighters of the National Liberation War (UABNOR) Mostar.
As they stated, they planned to mark this important date for Mostar with a series of events, but the police do not allow it this year, as they say, for security reasons.
“We cannot accept their explanation and we strongly protest against the prohibition of anti-fascists walking through the city. We do not accept being escorted by buses under armed escort, because it reminds us too much of the not so long ago when many of us were escorted through the same streets by the police”, they emphasized in the statement.
They state that they do not accept such a decision also due to the fact that “they have been convinced for years that Mostar is a safe city, and then for security reasons they cannot walk to the cemetery.”
“We do not accept this kind of decision even because of the fact that the government and all politics assure us that Mostar is a unique, undivided city. If that is so, how do you gentlemen from the Mostar Police Department explain the fact that in one half of the city you allow us to move freely, you don’t even show up, and in the other we need an armed escort and movement is restricted. It is a very ugly message that goes out to the world from Mostar on this occasion, because that line of permitted and unauthorized movement, you see miracles, coincides with the former war line in Mostar and its division into eastern and western,” the statement reads.
UABNOR does not even accept the explanation that there are 300 police officers missing, which is why they cannot walk through the city.
“The city is blocked during some other, no less important events or football derbies. As legalists, we will respect the decision, but it must be known that this decision of the police in Mostar is already interpreted as one part of the city being hostile towards the anti-fascist heritage,” it was stated.
The central manifestation is planned for Saturday, February 11, which includes a visit to the Partisan Memorial Cemetery, the laying of flowers and a tribute to the fallen anti-fascists of Mostar in the fight for freedom, and UABNOR Mostar announced that it was planned that, after gatherings at Trg Musala, march towards the Partisan Memorial Cemetery. (end) N.H.