A group of intellectuals, representatives of victim associations, journalists and representatives of authorities sent an open letter to mayors of US cities where filmmaker Boris Malagurski announced screenings of his film 'Republika Srpska The Struggle for Freedom', asking them to condemn the move and to express their solidarity with Bosnian victims of the 1992-95 war.

“We are writing you to express our profound alarm at the announced release of former Russia Today host Boris Malagurski's genocide relativist film ‘Republika Srpska: The Struggle for Freedom’, in the United States. The director has announced scheduled screenings of the film, starting on 17 March, in your cities, said the letter signed by dozens of public figures from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the region and other countries.

The letter stressed that the film “reimagines the crimes against humanity found by the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to have been committed by Serb forces against the Bosnian people (1992-95), including the Srebrenica Genocide, as a ‘fight against slavery’ and a ‘struggle for freedom’.”

As a result of the ICTY judgements on Serb-committed crimes in northern and eastern Bosnia during the Bosnian War, the letter stressed, we know that the political entity called Republika Srpska, the Serb-dominated part of the country, was “founded on atrocities and crimes against humanity” and that Malagurski reimagines the “genocidal founding of ‘Republika Srpska’ as a ‘struggle for freedom’ in his film.”

“This film is a continuation of the genocide relativism and historical revisionism upon which Boris Malagurski has built his career. In 2017, Boris Malagurski described the annual commemoration of the Srebrenica Genocide as a ‘fest’ during his TV show on Sputnik's Serbian network. Today, he seeks to spead the same relativist propaganda in the United States,” reads the letter.

Petition against screening of film about Republika Srpska entity

The signatories remind it was the United States who, among other nations, offered her staff and expertise to the ICTY in order to facilitate a path towards justice for Bosnia's victims, that the US for the last thirty years has become a cherished home for the next generations of Bosnians and that it is to the United States that, today, “we look for much needed solidarity.”

An open letter to US mayors about the upcoming screenings of Boris Malagurski’s revisionist film, “Republika Srpska: The Struggle for Freedom”.

70 signatures from civil society, academia, diplomacy, and civic organisations. pic.twitter.com/jMbR2oiJGj

— Georgio Konstandi (@georgiokon) March 15, 2023

“Taking all of the above into consideration, we implore you to use all possible platforms to condemn the upcoming screenings of ‘Republika Srpska: The Struggle for Freedom’ in the US. We implore you to express your solidarity, lest the Bosnian victims of 1992-1995 died in vain,” reads the letter sent to the mayors of the cities of Paterson, Jacksonville, North Port, Orlando, Miami, San Diego, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington DC and New York City.