It is encouraging that the institution of Bosnia’s international administrator is finally doing something to prevent activities that undermine peace and stability, the head of the pro-Bosnian ‘Together for BiH’ parliamentary group in Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity parliament, Edin Ramic, told N1 after the High Representative in the country sent a letter to the RS National Assembly requesting that it annuls charters it issued to those convicted of war crimes within the next three months.
Bosnia’s High Representative who is tasked with overseeing the civilian implementation of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, Valentin Inzko, sent the letter to the parliament of the Serb-majority RS entity on Wednesday.
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He pointed out that in 2016, the organizing committee which was established to mark the 25th anniversary of the existence and work of the RS National Assembly awarded special charters and recognitions to “numerous institutions, organizations and individuals.”
“Among those who received them were all former speakers of the National Assembly and members of the First Presidency of the RS, including Radovan Karadzic, Momcilo Krajisnik and Biljana Plavsic, whose actions shocked the world during the armed conflict [in Bosnia] and caused unimaginable human suffering. As you know, Karadzic, Krajisnik and Plavsic were convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia,” reads Inzko’s letter.
The Austrian diplomat stressed that “the glorification of war criminals, including glorification in the form in which we witnessed on October 24, 2016, directly hurts and provokes those who suffered the consequences of the war and damages the memory of the victims” and that it “destabilizes the region and threatens the prospects for reconciliation in BiH.”
He urged the RS Assembly to “show political maturity, moral responsibility and moderation towards the future, by revoking the charters with decorations awarded to convicted war criminals Karadzic, Krajisnik and Plavsic.”
“I am giving you and the RS National Assembly a period of three months, until the end of April 2021 [to do so],” Inzko stated in a letter addressed to RS National Assembly Speaker, Nedjeljko Cubrilovic.
While Ramic said the letter is a move in the right direction, he added that “it is unfortunate they have not done this throughout previous years and the result of their inaction was the decoration of convicted war criminals.”
He expressed hope that the RS parliament will act upon the request within Inzko’s deadline “out of fear of sanctions,” adding that he does not expect it to do so out of “respect for the Constitution and civilisational values.”
“It is obvious that we have growing nationalist rhetoric because of which more and more people are leaving BiH, and especially in areas where there are minority returnees who cannot survive with this kind of government rhetoric. We can hope that this is not a symbolic move by the outgoing High Representative, but the intention of the international community to change some things,” he said.
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