Lawmakers from Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity have been preventing any discussion on introducing a genocide denial ban in the country for years, the Movement of Mother of Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves said in response to an interview the president of the RS, Zeljka Cvijanovic, gave to Haaretz last week.

Cvijanovic told Haaretz that there was no genocide denial in Bosnia and that discussing the issue prevents Bosnia from looking to the future.

According to the Srebrenica Srebrenica victims’ association, “the Serb side has never been in favour of any solution or any agreement at the level of BiH that would prohibit or prevent the denial of genocide, the Holocaust and other war crimes.”

“Initiatives have existed since 2007 by MPs from the BiH Federation (entity), but the MPs from the RS did not allow a discussion on this topic, let alone the adoption of laws,” the association said.

“Also, when the president is already talking about victims, ie that a victim is a victim and that all of them must be treated equally, how is it possible that the law on the rights of victims of torture in the RS entity defines the Omarska camp as a “gathering centre”, considering the fact that all verdicts say it was a prison camp in which the greatest atrocities were committed against the non-Serb population of the Prijedor region, while on the other hand, places where Serbs were detained and killed are characterized as prison camps, although there is no verdict to confirm this,” it said.