The Government of Canada has condemned controversial marking of January 9 as the Day of the Republika Srpska (RS), Bosnia's Serb-majority region, becoming the first country in the world to raise the voice against unconstitutional marking of the RS Day on this date, head of the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada, Emir Ramic, told reporters in Sarajevo on Thursday.
“I would like to say a very important information, which has just happened in Canada, and it is that Canada's Government is the first in the world to condemn anti-civilisational act of marking January 9 in Bosnia's smaller entity, all that thanks to the work of the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada,” said Ramic.
“It is not a decision of a non-governmental organisation but the decision of the Government of Canada. We're grateful to the Government of Canada,” he underlined.
According to a press release signed by its Foreign Minister, which was published on the Institute's website, the Government of Canada said this country was firmly committed to the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and to the preservation of Bosnia's territorial integrity and sovereignty in accordance with the international law.
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“As a member of the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council (SB PIC), Canada supports Bosnia and Herzegovina in its development into a stable, viable, democratic multi-ethnic state, and encourages it to cooperate peacefully with its neighbours and remain on track toward European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization membership. We are aware of the decision of the Republika Srpska to commemorate January 9, despite the ruling by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina that found the holiday unconstitutional,” said the Government.
Despite the Court's decisions assessing it as unconstitutional, January 9 is being marked in Bosnia's Serb-majority entity since 1992.
