The “April 16” war victims' association strongly condemned a controversial statement of the President of Bosnia’s Federation (FBiH) entity, Lidija Bradara (HDZ), regarding convicted war criminal Dario Kordic, urging the High Representative of the international community to react.

In a recent interview she gave N1, Kordic spoke about her support for Kordic. When asked whether this means that she in some way also supported his war crimes, Bradara argued that Kordic served his sentence and should thus not be characterised as a war crime convict anymore.

“Such statements set an example for young people that crime pays, that the war criminal becomes a myth and a martyr among his people, which motivates future war criminals,” the victims’ association said, adding that the High Representative, Christian Schmidt, must react to this glorification of war criminals and sanction those who promote them.

It stressed that “war criminals are not in line with European values” and that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ruled that those responsible for the atrocities in the village of Ahmici, including Kordic, were sentenced to long prison terms.

“He was released at the beginning of June 2014. Then he was welcomed in Busovaca by HDZ president Dragan Covic, Bradara, Marinko Cavara, Borjana Kristo…”, the association stated.