Sobbing with grief, thousands of Bosnians attended the funeral Thursday of a prominent Bosnia Serb businessman and government critic who was gunned down earlier this week in a mafia-style ambush.
Slavisa Krunic, who owned several businesses including a private security firm, Sector Security, was buried in his village outside the northern Bosnian city of Banja Luka. Krunic was slain Monday in a late-night ambush outside his home.
Several thousand people, many of them distraught, followed Krunic's coffin as it was brought to the cemetery on a horse-driven carriage flanked by uniformed security guards from his firm.
Krunic's bodyguard and one of the attackers were also killed in the execution, which sparked a shootout. After the attack, other critics of the ruling Bosnian Serb nationalist party and its hard-line leader, Milorad Dodik, voiced fears that they too might be targeted.
"When they can execute a well-protected man who took his personal security very seriously, what can others expect?" Slobodan Vaskovic, a popular Bosnian Serb blogger critical of the ruling elites, wrote on social media.
The slain attacker was identified as a well-known criminal who should have been serving a 5-year prison sentence for robberies but was free due to a clerical error.
Police in Bosnia's Serb-run part of the Balkan nation arrested another suspected shooter, also a known criminal, and are searching for another man with ties to Serbian mafia. Police said the detained suspect insisted he was innocent.
Krunic, a vocal critic of Dodik, had accused him of stoking tensions in Bosnia to divert attention from his corrupt practices. Krunic also insisted the companies he owned would hire and serve people of all races and religions, contrary to Dodik's Serbian-first attitude.
"We are on the side of the forces that want to build this country and not to destroy it," Krunic said recently.
Bosnian Serb Interior Minister Dragan Lukac told lawmakers that police will "do everything in their power . to solve this case."
The autopsy of Krunic's body revealed that the 48-year-old father of four had been killed by a burst of bullets to his head from an automatic rifle as his car turned into the driveway of his house. Bosnian media claimed, quoting unnamed sources close to the investigation, that the assassins had used armor-piercing bullets.
Drasko Stanivukovic, a prominent opposition lawmaker who is a distant relative of Krunic's, said Thursday that people were increasingly warning him to keep quiet out of fear that he might be the next government critic to "end up dead."
Bosnian Security Minister Dragan Mektic, a member of a Bosnian Serb opposition party, accused Dodik in a tweet Wednesday of "putting targets on the backs" of critics, including Krunic.
Krunic's slaying comes amid growing tensions in Bosnia that have been fueled by a decision of the country's Serb-run region to establish an auxiliary police force of over 1,000 officers after buying a large amount of automatic weapons from Serbia.
According to stolen diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks, Krunic told the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo in 2008 that people close to Dodik were pressuring him to sell Sector Security, which employees Bosnians of all ethnic backgrounds, to a private security firm under their control. According to the cable, Krunic speculated that Dodik "wants control over Sector Security's 900 men in uniform."
In 2009, a U.S. diplomat linked to the international team overseeing Bosnia banned several Serb-run private security companies, citing "incontrovertible" evidence that they were engaged in "illegal intelligence and counterintelligence activities" such as protecting Bosnian Serb war crimes suspects on the run.
An ardent pro-Russian nationalist, Dodik has pressed for Serbs to separate from multi-ethnic Bosnia. Earlier this month, Dodik sparked outrage by claiming erroneously that the well-documented 1995 genocide in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica — where over 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered by Bosnian Serb troops — was "a fabricated myth" by the country's Muslims.
Dodik is currently subject to U.S. sanctions for "actively obstructing" the Dayton peace accords, which ended Bosnia's 1992-95 war by splitting the country into two highly independent parts, one run by Serbs and the other shared by Muslims and Croats.
PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron warned Thursday that Europe could “die” if it fails to build its own robust defense as Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on, or if it fails to undertake major trade and economic reforms to compete with China and the U.S.
Macron urged Europeans to become more ambitious in a fast-changing world to face the challenges of war, fierce trade competition, energy scarcity, climate change and increasing authoritarianism.
In a nearly two-hour speech at Sorbonne University in Paris, Macron said that the continent is divided and “too slow and lacks ambition” at a time when the 27-member European Union needs to become a superpower, defend its own borders and speak with one voice if it wants to survive and thrive.
“Our Europe today is mortal,” Macron said. “It can die and that depends solely on our choices,” he added. He called on people to make those choices now because, “it’s today that Europe is between war and peace.”
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its third year, is an existential threat and Europe isn't armed enough to defend itself when “confronted by a power like Russia that has no inhibitions, no limits,” Macron said.
‘Our ability to ensure our security is at stake," Macron said. “Russia mustn’t be allowed to win.”
Europe now has the “good fortune” of having the Biden administration’s commitment to supporting Ukraine, Macron said. But, in a year of key elections around Europe, in the U.S. and elsewhere, support may fragment or disappear entirely, he added.
“Europe must become capable of defending its interests, with its allies by our side whenever they are willing, and alone if necessary,” Macron said.
Strong armies, a European rapid intervention program and force, tanks, a missile shield and other weapons, produced in Europe, will need the support of “a joint diplomatic force that will speak with one voice and build bridges with Africa and Latin America,” the French leader said.
“Only then will Europe show that it's not a United States’ lap dog, and that it also knows how to talk to other regions of the world,” he said.
France has been a firm supporter of Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, and Macron has often clashed with other Western leaders as he has insisted that Europe must stand by the country at any cost. The French president alarmed European leaders by saying recently that sending Western troops into Ukraine to shore up its defenses shouldn’t be ruled out.
Referring to trade practices of China and the U.S., Macron said “the two world powers have decided not to respect the rules of global trade” by shoring up protections and subsides while Europe’s industry remains open and is stuck in overregulation.
“Let’s do the same, we are in competition,” Macron said.
“We must buy faster, we must produce more and we must buy more that is made in Europe. That is key,” Macron said.
Thursday's speech came less than two months before a pivotal European Parliament election.
Macron, an avid advocate of a united and assertive Europe, also rallied support for his centrist Renaissance party before the June 6-9 vote as far-right parties lead the moderate coalitions in the polls. He called for safeguarding democratic values as the “authoritarian model” was becoming “more popular” across the continent.
The war in Ukraine and immigration are top priorities for European Union voters, according to polls. Far-right parties have gained support by criticizing Macron’s government policies on both issues. Macron acknowledged divisions on immigration policies, including on asylum and deportation rules for those who have arrived to Europe illegally.
He emphasized the need for an effective response and Europe-wide coordination for curbing illegal immigration, closer cooperation with immigrants' countries of origin and a unified, relentless fight against human traffickers.
Macron criticized the idea of striking an agreement, as Britain as done, with countries in Africa and elsewhere to transfer immigrants there.
“This is a betrayal of our values that ultimately leads us to dependency on other counties,” Macron said.
The British government earlier this week approved a law allowing the deportation of some migrants who enter the country illegally to Rwanda.
Macron lost his majority in France’s most influential house of parliament, the National Assembly, after the 2022 election to the far-left coalition and the far-right National Rally party.
The social situation in France remains tense as Paris prepares to host the Olympic Games this summer, amid protests from teachers and police officers, and farmer demonstrations in recent weeks. The protests follow huge rallies last year against Macron’s ultimately successful proposal to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Barbara Surk reported from Nice, France. Lorne Cook contributed to this report from Brussels.
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech on Europe in the amphitheater of the Sorbonne University, Thursday, April 25 in Paris. 2024. French President Emmanuel Macron will outline his vision for Europe as a more assertive global power at the backdrop of war in Ukraine, security, and economic challenges in a speech ahead of pivotal election for the European Parliament in June. (Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech on Europe in the amphitheater of the Sorbonne University, Thursday, April 25 in Paris. 2024. French President Emmanuel Macron will outline his vision for Europe as a more assertive global power at the backdrop of war in Ukraine, security, and economic challenges in a speech ahead of pivotal election for the European Parliament in June. (Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech on Europe in the amphitheater of the Sorbonne University, Thursday, April 25 in Paris. 2024. French President Emmanuel Macron will outline his vision for Europe as a more assertive global power at the backdrop of war in Ukraine, security, and economic challenges in a speech ahead of pivotal election for the European Parliament in June. (Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech on Europe in the amphitheater of the Sorbonne University, Thursday, April 25 in Paris. 2024. French President Emmanuel Macron will outline his vision for Europe as a more assertive global power at the backdrop of war in Ukraine, security, and economic challenges in a speech ahead of pivotal election for the European Parliament in June. (Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech on Europe in the amphitheater of the Sorbonne University, Thursday, April 25 in Paris. 2024. French President Emmanuel Macron will outline his vision for Europe as a more assertive global power at the backdrop of war in Ukraine, security, and economic challenges in a speech ahead of pivotal election for the European Parliament in June. (Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech on Europe in the amphitheater of the Sorbonne University, Thursday, April 25 in Paris. 2024. French President Emmanuel Macron will outline his vision for Europe as a more assertive global power at the backdrop of war in Ukraine, security, and economic challenges in a speech ahead of pivotal election for the European Parliament in June. (Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech on Europe in the amphitheater of the Sorbonne University, Thursday, April 25 in Paris. 2024. French President Emmanuel Macron will outline his vision for Europe as a more assertive global power at the backdrop of war in Ukraine, security, and economic challenges in a speech ahead of pivotal election for the European Parliament in June. (Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech on Europe in the amphitheater of the Sorbonne University, Thursday, April 25 in Paris. 2024. French President Emmanuel Macron will outline his vision for Europe as a more assertive global power at the backdrop of war in Ukraine, security, and economic challenges in a speech ahead of pivotal election for the European Parliament in June. (Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron arrives to deliver a speech on Europe in the amphitheater of the Sorbonne University, Thursday, April 25 in Paris. 2024. French President Emmanuel Macron will outline his vision for Europe as a more assertive global power at the backdrop of war in Ukraine, security, and economic challenges in a speech ahead of pivotal election for the European Parliament in June. (Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech on Europe in the amphitheater of the Sorbonne University, Thursday, April 25 in Paris. 2024. French President Emmanuel Macron will outline his vision for Europe as a more assertive global power at the backdrop of war in Ukraine, security, and economic challenges in a speech ahead of pivotal election for the European Parliament in June. (Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech on Europe in the amphitheater of the Sorbonne University, Thursday, April 25 in Paris. 2024. French President Emmanuel Macron will outline his vision for Europe as a more assertive global power at the backdrop of war in Ukraine, security, and economic challenges in a speech ahead of pivotal election for the European Parliament in June. (Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a media conference at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, April 18, 2024. European Union leaders on Wednesday debated a new "European Competitiveness Deal" aimed at helping the 27-nation bloc close the gap with Chinese and American rivals amid fears the region's industries will otherwise be left behind for good. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
