5 hours agoFalse news creates paramilitary army in Bosnia
Periskopi(9 years ago)
(9 years ago)A paintball club using colored balls and uniforms to simulate battles in Bosnia and Herzegovina has announced that it will sue a television network, following reports that the club is a paramilitary unit that is being formed illegally by the country's presidency member, Bakir Izetbegovic. The crash began [...]
The clash began when the newspaper from Belgrade, Vecernje Novosti, reported on November 25th that Izetbegovic has trained illegally more than 9 thousand Bosniaks.
ATV television in Banja Luka, located in Republika Srpska, has gone a step further, showing photos of the militia, which it has said has secured exclusively.
Photos show men wearing military clothes and carrying guns for which the club claims to be air weapons, throwing soft, colored balls.
Club “
For this reason, and for the fact that our club is the largest and most famous in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we believe that journalists from this television have not accidentally published the counterspect article, but that there are other factors behind this confession, aimed at creating panic and fear in the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, this club said in a media report.
“Klub has already reported television mentioned at the Bosnian Communications Regulatory Agency, which we have informed him of the controversial material. We're not going to stop by just that, and we're preparing a comprehensive lawsuit for slander and reputation damage, and causing economic damage for our club,” is said further in the announcement.
Bosnia has been damaged by internal tensions between Bosniaks and the Bosnian Muslim population of Croats and Serbs.
This country has been part of Yugoslavia until the breakup of the communist state in the early 1990s, and has declared independence in March 1992, triggering a civil war between Muslim, Croat and Serb populations.
The war, which ended after international intervention in December 1995, killed about 100,000 people and the shift of some 2.6 million others.
In the report, ATV television has asked Izetbegovic if he's forming a paramilitary unit, but he doesn't confirm it or deny it, saying that “will sometimes have no problem from us”.
Bosnia and Herzegovina's State Investigation and Protection Agency has said there is no “knowledge about the formation of parallel/secret militias in the country, allegedly co-ordinated by a member of the Bosnian Presidency”.
Based on the Facebook page, the club is a “non-profitable, non-government organisation, promoting pantball as a sport”.
Since the end of the war in 1995, Bosnia has been divided into two entities -- Republika Srpska and the Croatian-Muslim Federation. / REL
