The Republika Srpska's (RS) decision to reject or amend the Report on Srebrenica directly undermines the reconciliation and full implementation of the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) said on Thursday.

The National Assembly of the RS, Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, convened on Tuesday at RS President Milorad Dodik's request to discuss the 2004 Report on Srebrenica which Dodik assessed as fake and being used for political manipulation.

According to Dodik, the report adopted by an RS Government's commission, which includes the information on the Srebrenica events from July 1995, was passed under the pressure of the international community.

The RS National Assembly (RSNA) adopted on Tuesday a conclusion without votes of Bosniak MPs, rejecting the 2004 Srebrenica Report and stipulating among other things the formation of an independent, international commission to impartially determine the extent of suffering of the Serbs in Srebrenica during the 1992-95 period and in Sarajevo during the 1991-95 period.

The ICMP said in a statement that the 2004 Report on Srebrenica “laid out the facts surrounding the events in Srebrenica” and that “the facts established by the Report have been confirmed by the international and domestic criminal courts.”

“The facts have also been supported by two decades of systematic forensic work conducted by the ICMP. (…) The facts are even less disputable today than they were in 2004,” said the ICMP.

“The RS National Assembly’s vote to reject or amend the 2004 Report is disturbing. It is not founded on any new facts. On the contrary, facts established since 2004 support the Report’s conclusions. Two international tribunals, the ICTY and ICJ, concluded that genocide was committed in Srebrenica. The RS National Assembly’s vote appears to be motivated solely by an intent to reopen wounds that have barely begun to heal,” said this international organisation.