Bosniak Presidency member Sefik Dzaferovic denied on Thursday that the memory of Srebrenica genocide intensifies divisions in society or that this might leave negative consequences on the stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Speaking at a two-day international conference on denial of genocide and Holocaust, which commenced on Thursday in Sarajevo, Dzaferovic said that “the truth about every crime, regardless of who committed it and who were the victims, as well as accepting that truth, is an essential precondition for stability.”

The fourth international conference ‘Stop Genocide and Holocaust Denial’ brought together the victims’ associations as well as former judges and prosecutors of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, historians, genocide investigators, journalists and other experts.

Dzaferovic, who is the Bosniak member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency, emphasised that the United Nations did not prevent genocide in Srebrenica although they were obliged to protect the local civilians.

He said that while one part of the international community proves that the lessons from Srebrenica have been learnt and adopted, the other part “openly took the side of the politics that lean on the politics of genocide and openly encourage them in their denial and in not accepting the relevant international courts’ decisions.”

In April 1993 the UN had declared the besieged enclave of the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica a safe zone under the UN protection. However, in July 1995 the Dutch battalion failed to prevent the town's capture by the Bosnian Serb forces and the massacre that followed.

More than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed in the genocide committed in the days after 11 July 1995, and so far the remains of more than 6,600 have been found and buried.

The International Criminal Tribunal (ICTY) for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice later ruled that the massacre was an act of genocide.

International and regional courts have sentenced 45 people for what happened in Srebrenica to a total of more than 700 years behind bars. Those who the ICTY sentenced to life imprisonment are Ljubisa Beara, Zdravko Tolimir, and Vujadin Popovic. But the most well known alleged masterminds of what happened in Srebrenica are former Bosnian Serb politician Radovan Karadzic and ex Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, and both have been sentenced for it but have appealed.

To date, Bosnian Serb leadership have never recognised the Srebrenica massacre as an act of genocide.

The solution, according to Dzaferovic, is in the adoption of a law on prohibiting the genocide denial and sanctioning it with the most strict punishments.

“Before that happens, all those responsible for genocide must be brought to justice,” he said.