A billboard that emerged in the eastern municipality of Bratunac which congratulates Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic’s birthday is a result of the lack of laws that would prevent the glorification of war criminals, the Vice President of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity said, urging the international community to react.
According to Ramiz Salkic, the lack of action from the international community in such cases, which “slowly but surely endanger the achieved level of inter-ethnic cooperation” in the RS, is “concerning.”
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“The glorification of war criminals in Bratunac, Bijeljina and elsewhere in this entity is a consequence of the lack of legislation and the possibility of punishing perpetrators as a means of preventing these activities in the future,” Salkic said.
He specifically urged the Office of the High Representative (OHR), which oversees the civilian implementation of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, to react.
“The relativisation of these phenomena by the OHR, but also by other domestic and international organizations, will undoubtedly lead to further radicalization,” he argued.
“The billboard dedicated to war criminal Ratko Mladic in Bratunac is another in a series of reasons for the need of the High Representative to impose a law banning the denial of genocide and glorification of war criminals,” he stressed.
He called on institutions to investigate and punish those who are behind spreading religious and ethnic hatred and intolerance.
The Bratunac branch of the main Bosniak party in the country, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), also condemned the billboard, blaming the municipal mayor and local authorities for it.
According to the head of the Srebrenica Memorial Center, Emir Suljagic, citizens are concerned because of the billboard.
He noted that the billboard is located only a few kilometres from the Srebrenica Memorial Center and criticised Bosnia’s Chief Prosecutor, Gordana Tadic, for not reacting.
In 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted Mladic, former Commander of the Army of Republika Srpska, of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war, sentencing him to life imprisonment.
Both the defence and prosecution appealed the judgement.
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