To the Hague with Them or to Hell With Us?

01 April 2005

A public campaign was announced in the Republic of Srpska, inviting the citizens to provide information on the whereabouts of the war crimes suspects. The campaign, titled �To the Hagua with Them or to Hell with Us�, is implemented by the RS Government, in agreement with international organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The campaign includes posters with names of Hague suspects that are still at large, but also some people that are already in the custody of the ICTY (Gojko Jankovic, Drago Nikolic and Vinko Pandurevic, who announced his surrender several days before the start of this campaign.

The second part of the campaign will include the airing of a �Them or Us� video-spot, on Radio Television RS (the public broadcaster), BN TV and Alternative TV, as well as on other stations that will accept to air it without compensation. The video was produced by the Metropolis marketing agency, which will also make available its network of billboards to the campaign.

The campaign is designed to explain it to the citizens of the RS the need for cooperation with the Hague Tribunal. The funds for the campaign were secured from the RS Budget, and they will be augmented by donations.

The creative idea in itself costs 28,600 KM. It is the idea, however, especially the motto of the campaign, that now meets with the disapproval by the public and the politicians in RS. The comments in the media are less than positive.

Petar Dokic, President of the Socialist Party of RS, called it a circus, a �... show not worthy of the name comedy, having in mind that even the representatives of the Government can�t tell what is the contents and the idea of the campaign.

The Government Secretariat in charge of relations with the Hague Tribunal informs that the campaign will be officially launched as soon as the mistakes are corrected.