The genocide committed in Srebrenica is a fact established by international courts, and denying it does not help the reconciliation process between Bosnia and Serbia, the Chairman of the Bosnia’s Council of Ministers (CoM), Denis Zvizdic, wrote on Thursday in response to Serbia’s PM denying the genocide in an interview for Deutsche Welle.
“The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has, as the head of Serbia’s Government, Ana Brnabic, should know, in several final rulings, determined that in July 1995 a genocide was committed against the Bosniak population in Srebrenica,” Zvizdic’s statement said, adding that all details about those court proceedings are publically available.
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He called upon Brnabic to read at least part of the documentation based on which international judges ruled that genocide “and the biggest crime in Europe after the end of WWII” was committed against the Bosniaks, before the next time she “makes baseless interpretations and comments on rulings.”
“It is astonishing that you are trying to minimize the planned killing of more than eight thousand innocent civilians with your uncivilised denial of the genocide, to dispute international law and the rulings of international courts and to turn yourself into a promoter of genocide denial as the final phase of its complete execution,” the statement said.
Zvizdic wrote that Bosnian citizens, especially Bosniaks, are well aware of “hegemonistic projects attempting to deny Bosnia and Herzegovina as a historical, political and cultural fact” and which are ongoing for nearly a century and a half already.
“But, not all Bosnian Serbs were aligned with Milosevic’s and Karadzic’s criminal politics, and Bosnia and Herzegovina was always full of Bosnians and Herzegovinians who love her and that is why everybody’s project of her destruction has not succeeded and never will,” he wrote.
Historical facts shall “never again be interpreted according to the orders and wishes of Belgrade,” nor shall the project of genocide denial, revision of historical facts or of equalising the victims and the perpetrators ever succeed “as Bosnia and Herzegovina is an independent sovereign state in which, together with Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats, Bosniaks who are aware of their history and who have inevitable political sovereignty live,” he wrote.
The genocide should be a “reason to think about mistakes that were made in the past, for honest repentance, and finally for confession,” which is crucial for the reconciliation process, he wrote.
“This is why I hope that a new leader will emerge in Serbia and produce a turning point and who will, because of our joint future, admit the genocide. You obviously cannot or do not want to,” his statement said.
“Finally, historical facts can never be erased, and lies which are repeated for a hundred times still remain only lies, while there is only one truth. And this truth is that a genocide was committed in Srebrenica,” Zvizdic’s statement concluded.
