The Canadian Government stand in solidarity with survivors, victims, witnesses and descendants of genocide in Prijedor
The reply of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, the Honourable Stéphane Dion, to the letter of the Institute for Research of genocide Canada due to violations of basic human rights and freedoms of survivors, victims, witnesses and descendants of genocide in Prijedor
“Thank you for your correspondence of April 12, 2016, regarding the denial of war crimes and genocide in Prijedor and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Canada strongly and consistently condemns all war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. As a fervent supporter of the work of international courts, including the International Criminal Court and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, we remain steadfast in our commitment to see the perpetrators of serious international crimes brought to justice. The promotion and protection of human rights is an integral part of Canada’s foreign policy and our efforts abroad. The Government of Canada strongly supports the right to freedom of expression, association and assembly, and will continue to urge political leaders in Prijedor and Bosnia and Herzegovina to ensure all individuals have full enjoyment of these rights”. Hon. Stéphane Dion
The letter to the Hon. Stéphane Dion
On behalf of survivors, witnesses and descendants of the Bosnian War and Genocide (including the Srebrenica Genocide – considered to be the greatest atrocity to have taken place on European soil since the end of World War II), the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada (IGC) respectfully request that you issue a statement marking May 31, 2016, as the “World White Armband Day”. This campaign aims to draw attention to the continued denial of war crimes, as well as the discrimination of non-Serb victims of the war by the local government in the city of Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In 2012, a global campaign titled “Stop Genocide Denial” was launched to draw attention to the violations of the rights of the victims of the war in Prijedor and elsewhere in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thousands of people in Canada and from around the world joined in wearing white armbands on May 31st of that year (and continue to do so every year since then) in solidarity with the families of the victims.
This campaign hopes to counter human rights violations such as: the police ban of commemorative gatherings of the victims of genocide; the refusal of Mayor Marko Pavic and the Prijedor local authorities to permit the construction of a memorial for the 102 innocent children that were killed in Prijedor during the war; their refusal to allow the installation of a monument to commemorate the innocent civilian victims that were killed in the notorious concentration camp at Omarska.
On May 31, 1992 (shortly after the beginning of the war), the Bosnian Serb authorities in Prijedor issued an order through the local radio stations instructing the non-Serb members of the population to mark their houses with white flags and to put a white armband around their sleeve whenever in public. This was the beginning of a campaign of extermination of the non-Serb population of Prijedor, which resulted in the ethnic cleansing of 94% of the Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak) and Bosnian Croat population from the Prijedor municipality. This was the first time since 1939 – when a Nazi decree required Polish Jews to wear white armbands with the Star of David on their sleeves – that members of an ethnic or religious group were marked for extermination in such a manner.
In May of 2012, the police in Prijedor banned a public gathering commemorating the brutal murder of women, children, and civilians that occurred in Prijedor during the Bosnian War, from 1992 to 1995. In addition, Prijedor’s municipal assembly passed a directive to criminally prosecute human rights activists from Prijedor; the local police continue to implement these decisions with vigour.
On December 10, 2012, as the international community commemorated the 64th International Human Rights Day, the Prijedor police placed itself above the laws of the Republika Srpska (RS) entity of Bosnia and banned a peaceful march that aimed to mark this anniversary.
Please issue this statement and show that you stand in solidarity with the victims of human rights abuses in Prijedor and around the globe. We urge the Canadian Government to ensure that the police, in their activities and duties, do not discriminate against individuals and organizations based on their ethnicity, and request that all cases of human rights abuses and violations be investigated. Lastly, we urge Canada and international human rights organizations to stand with us in defending the freedom of peaceful assembly and the basic human rights of marginalized individuals and groups in Prijedor.
