Professor of philosophy at the University of Oslo, Arne Johan Vetlesen, said at a session of the Bosnian ‘Krug 99’ association of intellectuals in Sarajevo on Sunday that he is worried about the future of the country after he found that many citizens not only deny that a genocide took place in Bosnia, but glorify war criminals as heroes.

This is Vetlesen's fifth visit to Bosnia.

He explained that he was born in 1960 and belongs to the generation that believed that genocide could never occur again after WWII, but that it still occurred in Bosnia during the 1992-1995 war and in Ruanda in 1994.

He said he studies not only the past but also the future.

“I was interested in how young generations perceive this phenomenon,” he said.

The academic said that he was left astonished after he visited several universities in the country and found that students who were born after the war have a strong stance regarding genocide.

He was especially interested in the issue of reconciliation and the ways in which Bosnia can progress after the genocide took place.

“I was left with a mixed picture,” he said, explaining that he found there is genocide denial “which is especially present among the older generations or the very perpetrators who have personal interest regarding the denial of the genocide.”

He said that this caused concern as “my students from different ethnic groups have different curriculums” when it comes to the events of the 1990s in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“I have to say that this represents a bad sign as we can, in a way, not achieve a joint perspective, but we have a divided perspective,” he said.