The Institute for Bosniak Studies of the Bosniak Community of Culture "Preporod", in cooperation with the Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law of the University of Sarajevo, and the Bosnian Cultural Center of the Canton of Sarajevo, yesterday in Sarajevo organized a scientific meeting "Genocide against Bosniaks and demographic changes in Bosnia and Herzegovina to the RS entity from 1992 to 2022".
The topic of the scientific meeting is current and refers to current events in the RS, and the intention and goal of the organizers was to approach this topic in a deeper, more substantive, more essential way than is the case in the daily sphere of treating this issue.
During the meeting, the speakers pointed out that the genocidal intentions and the execution of the genocide completely changed the ethnic picture in the Bosnian-Herzegovinian administrative unit Republika Srpska, but today the support for the ethnic cleansing of that area by peacetime means, which is the denial of elementary civil, individual and collective rights, is worrying.
The vice-president of the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ramiz Salkić, said that the goal is to inform the public about the relevant facts in order not to allow the revitalization and revision of history.
"About 440,000 Bosniaks lived in the area that is now administratively called the RS entity in 1991, and 170,000 Bosniaks were enumerated in 2013. This tells us that 270,000 people were killed or expelled during the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina," explained Salkić.
He claims that less than 100,000 Bosniaks live in the RS today.
"Thus, about 70,000 people were expelled again by systemic discrimination and the creation of impossible conditions for the life of Bosniaks who returned to the territory of the RS entity," Salkić explained, stressing that these are facts that no one can deny.
The president of the Bosnian cultural community "Preporod", Sanjin Kodric, said that they wanted to send a message, but also to keep alive in the public the memory of the period from 1992 until today.
"The goal of the conference is to scientifically answer the questions of what genocide meant in the case of demographic changes in the RS. This is the only realistic way to compete with non-factual and ideological narratives that want to dispute the factual truths about the genocide and its consequences," he pointed out.
Prof. Ph.D. Rasim Muratović, director of the Institute for Researching Crimes Against Humanity and International Law at the University of Sarajevo, said, among other things: "First, a classic armed aggression was committed against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The genocide against Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina was well thought out and carried out in a planned, systematic manner and organized. The Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity Republika Srpska is a genocidal creation of the Great Serbian Nazism, created on the basis of grave violations of international humanitarian law. It would be disastrous for our country to stop talking and writing about the facts. Cowardice and forgetting are not the solution because that would mean that we have succumbed to injustice. Instead getting used to immoral propaganda, we must have the strength, knowledge and character to present and affirm the anti-fascist values that are the foundation of our state of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the whole world."
The representative of the Institute of History, Jasmin Medić, said that the Bosnian Krajina has seen drastic demographic changes.
Their goal, he added, is to point out the fact that in 1991, according to the population census in ten municipalities in the RS, Bosniaks were in a relative or absolute majority."
"Primarily, the demographic structure was changed by war crimes, and the RS entity is today a single-national entity," said Medić.
Muamer Džananović, research associate of the Institute for the Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law, University of Sarajevo, says that "Greater Serbian, or Greater Serbian, ideology defined in the strategic goals of the Serbian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina included, as the first goal, the elimination of other peoples, first of all Bosniaks, with spaces that were considered to belong to them".
"Hiljade Bošnjaka, konkretno u Podrinju, je ubijeno i protjerano već 1992., a nakon agresije nije se odustalo od te zločinačke ideologije. Bošnjaci danas u podrinjskim gradovima, od Višegrada, Foče do Zvornika, preko Vlasenice i Bratunca, apsolutna su manjina i na razne načine im se poručuje da tamo nema mjesta za njih. Srpsko stanovništvo koje je dominantna etnička skupina u RS-u je po demografskim pokazateljima ekstremno staro stanovništvo i tamo imamo jednu potpunu besperspektivnost. Preduslov za značajnije promjene je pomirenje, a da bi do toga došlo, mora se u potpunosti odbaciti genocidna ideologija i krenuti jednim perspektivnijim putem", poručuje Džananović.
Naučni skup okupio je 15 izlagača iz različitih disciplina humanističkih i društvenih nauka, uz pokroviteljstvo potpredsjednika bosanskohercegovačkog entiteta RS Ramiza Salkića.
Tokom 2022. godine planirano je i objavljivanje izlaganja koja će biti predstavljena na skupu u tematskom broju Radova Instituta za bošnjačke studije Bošnjačke zajednice kulture "Preporod".
