You were one of the speakers at the scientific meeting and exhibition on the topic "9. January - Road to Genocide". What is the goal of the project and how important is it to stop the revisionism of history that we face almost every day?
- I said that we are facing revisionism, denial of genocide. In relation to the holocaust, which is very rarely denied, in the case of the genocide against the Bosniaks, we have constant denial.
Arguments and documents
I think that revisionism can be stopped only with a scientific aspect, a scientific approach, and in the way that the Institute for Research on Crimes against Humanity and International Law does - by publishing studies that are based on an argument and a document.
On the eve of the commemoration of January 9, in the midst of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, Milorad Dodik, the President of Republika Srpska, awarded the highest decoration of this entity to Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation. What message is BiH sending to the world with this act? Can anyone stop Dodik and his associates?
- We heard from one of the presenters of the scientific meeting that it is not, in fact, an act of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is actually the work of that part of Bosnia and Herzegovina that committed an anti-civilization act in the suburbs of Sarajevo just yesterday. I think that Milorad Dodik confirmed his anti-civilization act with that action and exposed the "Serbian-Russian world" that he stands for.
Photo: Senad Gubelić
As I said in my presentation, the only and real remedy for all these types of evil is actually the development of democracy, the development of democratic relations and neglecting the subject of genocide. On the contrary, the topic of genocide needs to be incorporated into all programs - from primary, secondary, higher education, to program acts of all political parties and program acts of all business entities.
Many European officials, members of the European Parliament, representatives of the Bundestag, the high representative, warned that the celebration of the day that the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared unconstitutional could have consequences. Do you believe that the leadership of the entities of Republika Srpska will really be punished and how? Why are the decisions of the Constitutional Court not respected?
- I don't believe that the leadership of the entity will be punished, to tell you the truth. Judging by the high representative's activities so far, I don't believe that. It is a difficult question why the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina are not respected. There are certainly more factors that influence it, but we'll see. It is to be hoped that we will not have such cases and examples in the future.
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Can we even talk about reconciliation and truth when every day, and especially around January 9, we are faced with the denial of war crimes, genocide in Srebrenica? Every time we come back to the story of secession and denial of statehood. How to change such a behavior matrix?
- Well, while that is the case, we certainly cannot talk about reconciliation. In fact, the victim should first experience an apology from the aggressor, the executioner, and only then should she, for herself, evaluate whether to accept that apology. Only the next step is reconciliation. Of course, it is difficult to change the behavior matrix you list. Apart from the development of democratic relations, which I have already mentioned, it remains for everyone who does his job, regardless of what he does, to do it in the best possible way. It is medicine and it is hope.
Recently, there were messages from Russia that "besides Kosovo, Bosnia could also explode". Do we have reason to be afraid of a new conflict?
- We have no reason to be afraid, but we have reason to be afraid. Our security services have an obligation, and they have a reason, to work harder on all of this, to inform the competent authorities. Competent authorities have to inform whoever they need to, but we have no reason to be afraid.
It is inevitable that we will once again talk about proceedings against war crimes suspects before the courts of the former Yugoslavia, and especially before the courts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Somehow justice seems really slow. Is it achievable and do you believe that the domestic courts will finally start the process of sentencing those who committed war crimes in these areas more promptly?
- Justice is slow, but attainable. We have 848 cases of the Hague Tribunal. These are items from the A list and there is reasonable suspicion for all of them that they have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of genocide.
The task of science
So far, our judiciary has not done anything on the subject. Now it will be more than 20 years since they received those finished, finished objects. Hope they start doing their jobs, the way they should.
When will the time finally come, and will it even come, for the Bosnian society to condemn and remove all those who are responsible for the murders during the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina?
- Bh. the company has already done this in one segment in the past period. Of course, it is the task, first of all, of the scientific institutions to continue working and contribute to the completion of the process on that front.
Source: Oslobodjenje.ba
Naslovna fotografija: Muhamed Tunović