Christian Schmidt, High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina attends the commemoration of the genocide in Srebrenica in Potocari, where he spoke to N1 about his future plans regarding genocide denial.

Schmidt pointed out that he was dissatisfied with the situation in which war criminals are glorified in society.

“Have we achieved justice, no we have not achieved it. Have we come close to justice, I think we have. The very fact that we no longer allow war criminals to be in various positions of power is an achievement. I'm still not satisfied with how war criminals are glorified within society. That is why we need to work harder and cooperate with the state prosecutor's office. I appeal to the courts in the region, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in other neighbouring countries to assess and condemn the crimes committed. Maybe this sounds bureaucratic, but it has nothing to do with the fact that I'm German, it has to do with the fact that I'm convinced that if we don't clarify things in detail, there won't be a reconciliation we desperately need,” he said.

Schmidt fulfilled his promise that war criminals would not be able to run for office, and after that, a request came from the victims to make it impossible for those denying the genocide to engage in politics.

“Denial of genocide is a criminal offence and we have to talk about how much the perpetrators of such crimes deny it due to insufficient knowledge, and how to approach them”, he said.

Schmidt also said what happened after the visit of judicial officials from Bavaria who were at the BiH Prosecutor's Office the day after last year's commemoration.

“Bavarian prosecutors were there and they will be happy to come again, and in the meantime, we have come to a situation where we have cooperation with the judges. Judgments do exist, but I see murals [of war criminals]. I must say that we have to talk with the cities, with the municipalities. Whoever wants to work in his city must ensure that war crimes cannot be glorified,” he pointed out.

Schmidt sent an invitation to the Serb member of the BiH Presidency that nothing is stopping her from coming to Potocari.

“It's a place for a person to recall all the evil and all the sufferings and you can see for yourself that I remain supportive and there will also be things that we will continue to develop,” he said.

According to Schmidt, not everyone in RS thinks like Milorad Dodik and the coalition gathered around his party.

“People who represented the RS, like Mladen Ivanic, are ready for conversation, development, and that cannot happen overnight, and we must understand that in the RS, not everyone thinks like Milorad Dodik, and he now feels that we have a plurality of opinions. First of all, we must be aware that if we leave it to the politicians, then it will be difficult. I believe that young people should get active and take the lead and say ‘let's collaborate’,” he stated.

“When it comes to education, we don't deal with that issue too much. Young people from all ethnic groups, from all parts of the Western Balkans, Europe should come here and see what happened here. I think that the Resolution passed by the UN is something good, but young people still get too much glorification of people and too many stories about moves made by individuals, and too little information in order to orient themselves towards the future,” Schmidt pointed out, adding that young people must resist the propaganda imposed on them in the RS.

“That's why corruption must disappear and NGOs in the RS must not be controlled, and that is the task of the legislator.”