The participants of the international conference of the European Fund for Southeast Europe, held yesterday, at the BiH Parliamentary Assembly in Sarajevo, remained under blockade until the early morning hours of 7 June 2013, prevented from leaving the BiH Parliamentary Assembly after the end of the Conference. The BiH Parliament building was besieged by a large number of protesters dissatisfied with the temporary decision on the issuance of a single identity number, taken by the BiH Council of Ministers, two days ago.
The group of 350 foreign nationals trapped at the BiH Parliamentary Assembly included 9 nationals of the Republic of Serbia, representatives of the Commercial Bank, Intesa Bank and Cacanska Bank. Immediately upon receiving the information and request for help from trapped Commercial Bank representative Aleksandar Grabovac, the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia in BiH undertook all the necessary measures to help Serbian nationals. Throughout the night, in addition to being in permanent contact with A. Grabovac and keeping abreast of the situation which the nationals of the Republic of Serbia in BiH found themselves in, the Serbian Embassy in BiH was in permanent touch with the Chief of Office of BiH Minister of Security F. Radoncic and his Media Advisor, as well as the persons in charge at the Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies, who were directly involved in the evacuation of foreign nationals from the BiH Parliamentary Assembly. The evacuation of our own and other foreign nationals started at 4:00 A.M. this morning, as a result of which Serbian bank representatives were at their hotels already at 4:30 A.M. (where their accommodation had been previously booked for the purpose of their participation at the meeting). All our nationals are in good health. Commercial Bank representative A. Grabovac expressed his deep gratitude to the Embassy, on behalf of nine Serbian nationals, and informed that the second day of the conference, scheduled for today, had been cancelled; that some Serbian bank representatives would be leaving BiH today and that Commercial Bank representatives were going to do likewise tomorrow morning.