July 11, 2013

Press release of the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada is marking 18 years since the genocide in Srebrenica occurred

The final judgments of international and national courts on the genocide in Srebrenica are quite sufficient, materially and legally, which is the reason the name of the Republic Srpska should be abolished

1. The Srebrenica genocide is a final rounding process of crimes against the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its citizens, the completion of the "pure" Serbian territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of the twentieth century in the center of the democratic, free, united Europe

Eighteen years have passed since the Srebrenica genocide. Inevitability, Srebrenica emerges as the place of the horrible crime of genocide and as an encompassing symbol of sufferings in; Sarajevo, Mostar, Livno, Nevesinje, Prijedor, Višegrad, Foča, Goražde, Bijeljina, Brčko and other places in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The barbaric invasion of the Belgrade regime which initiated the Greater Serbia project with fire and sword was rounded-off and finished in Srebrenica. Srebrenica became the centre point of the crime map and the network against Bosniaks. What are our memories today, eighteen years after the consummation of a genocidal aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina?

The Nazis wanted an ethnically pure Germany. To achieve this goal, they exterminated all who were not a part of their national identity. The Bosnian Serbs, most but not all of them, encouraged by the Greater Serbia policy of Belgrade realized that the only way to create a homogeneous, compact and politically confined territory was to carry out ethnic cleansing and genocide. The path of the crime was realized through careful planning. In the early nineties Ratko Mladić, who was the indicted criminal for genocide and war crimes, publically admitted that the project of the Bosnian Serbs could be realized and achieved only through aggression and genocide. This openly stated admission tells us that the aggressors against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina knew what had to happen in order to achieve the “six strategic objectives” of a Greater Serbia expansionism.

2. The Srebrenica genocide represented the completion of a criminal process against Bosnia and Herzegovina and its citizens resulting in the establishment of a “pure” Serbian territory project within Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Srebrenica genocide in July 1995 represented the completion of a criminal process against Bosnia and its citizens resulting in the establishment of a “pure” Serbian territory project within Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is clear that this process could not have been implemented without the regime of Slobodan Milošević in Belgrade. The Belgrade authorities today are successfully transferring the main responsibility for the genocide in Bosnia to the Bosnian Serbs, who themselves continually turn to the Dayton Peace Agreement as an effective means of destabilizing the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

3. The genocide against Srebrenica’s Bosniaks does not only concern Bosniaks but also became part of the European and World consciousness and conscience

The genocide against Srebrenica’s Bosniaks does not only concern Bosniaks; at the end of the 20th century, this genocide also became a part of the European and World consciousness and conscience. The issue of genocide is a question of humanity, humanity’s human face. Genocide offends every human being in the world. The whole drama about the genocide should be seen from the European and world level, within international law, UN Charter, European Union. Who allowed the genocide in the “UN safe area” Srebrenica? If we are humans, it can still be found out.

The Institute for Research of Genocide Canada believes that the time has come to approach seriously the issue of genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, its causes and consequences, and this indicates the responsibility of all scientists and the intellectual public, all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, regardless of their religious or ethnic designation. Srebrenica is not an “out-of-region entity”; it is located in Bosnia and Herzegovina where the genocide against Bosniaks took place. At international meetings and conferences Srebrenica is discussed, but not located in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The impression people get is that Srebrenica it is an indeterminate place outside of Bosnian territory. The ignorance, irresponsibility, and incompetence of individuals and international institutions are the reasons for undermining the heroic defence of Bosnia and Herzegovina and humiliating the suffering of victims. This, though, helps the aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina retroactively become a “civil war” in which “all were killing” and in which “all were equally guilty.”

4. The entity of the Republic Srpska is seen as a guardian of the resulting genocidal atrocities that prepared the creation of the "Serbian state" in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. That's a new war, a new aggression, and a new genocide

The strategic goal of the Serbian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina – establishment of a “single Serbian state”) is resulting in the international armed conflict, the aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and genocide against Bosniacs, serving as bases for the establishment of Republika Srpska, an entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has also been confirmed by the relevant results of the up to date scientific researches and studies, the judgments delivered by the national and international courts, including the research sponsored by the Republika Srpska Government (Commission for the research of the events in and around Srebrenica from 10 to 19 July 1995 and its Working group).

The Institute for Research of Genocide, Canada has to remind – we are compelled to it by the human and scientific truth – the entire public that the entity Republika Srpska, or Bosnia and Herzegovina as defined in the Annex 4 to the Dayton Agreement, was not established based on the expression of democratic will or political rights of its citizens expressed at the 1992 Referendum, while respecting the freedoms and human rights, being permanent values of the contemporary democratic world. Therefore, Republika Srpska is not a natural creation, creation built on postulates of democratic ideals, respect for human rights and recognition of freedoms of the citizens and peoples.

Republika Srpska entity institutions, its army and police, according to the verdict of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, committed genocide against Bosniaks. Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats in the institutions of the Dayton governments must now comply with the verdict, because the verdict of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, February 2007 is superior to all legal, political, and parastate forms of action. The battle for Bosnia and Herzegovina must follow the respect of the rule of law and recognition of the importance of international law, where UN member states protect against barbarism, aggression, and the Greater Serbian project that stems from expansionist nationalism. In the Republika Srpska entity, preserving the results of the genocide after Dayton is the main political and cultural objective of its policies. Since 1995 Bosnia has become the prisoner of the entity’s subversive, anti-state actions that undermine irredentist efforts. The genocidal creation that is now called and sanctioned as Republika Srpska is, we must realize, a Chetnik, anti-Bosnian project that perverts the governmental structures that fight for the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is not a matter about being naive and ignorant; it is a matter of the insolent inadequacy of semi-literate imposters! The Republika Srpska entity presents itself as the guarantee of the genocidal atrocities with which the creation of a “Serbian state” in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina was prepared. This is the continuation of war in the political realm after a war!

The Dayton project implicitly questions the very state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and frames us in an anti-Bosnian Constitution (Annex IV) as if we were savages who had no state (the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina) or Constitution. Thinking about Srebrenica is thinking about Bosnia. Being trapped in ethnopolitics does not mean that there are no other possible forms of political action. Without this insight we would have no hope. Bosniak politics and representatives of political parties, who are supposedly caring for the interests of the Bosniak people, did not show a universal perspective in understanding the genocide that was carried out on the inhabitants of Srebrenica and the Drina valley, i.e., in Bosnia and Herzegovina. By this ignorance, first and foremost, but also by other means, Bosniak politicians allowed the sanctioning of genocide on the soil of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This raises the question of responsibility that we can no longer hide under the carpet. We must begin to critically and with responsibility deliberate on the political, religious and scientific dead-end of the Bosniak political representation in the last twenty years (1990-2010). Before us lies the question of why the Bosniaks are not devoting the required attention to the Greater Serbia program of ethnic cleansing and genocide, which existed through history for two centuries and is directly related to Bosniaks as an obsessive object in the area of today’s Serbia and Bosnia. The Republica Srpska entity is the result of this historical program. It is with Srebrenica that it became perfectly clear that genocide was the primary means of creating a Greater Serbia – a region ethnically and religiously “cleansed” of non-Serb population.

The international community must participate in answering the question of whether genocide is a legitimate tool in achieving political and cultural objectives. It is a question for local politicians as well. Is the verdict that genocide was committed in Srebrenica by the military and police of the RS entity as a culmination of crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992-1995 sufficient to yield the rights of victims and achieve justice? The question now is whether it is now possible for the act of genocide to continue to stand on the land of Bosnia and Herzegovina? The conclusion of the Dayton Peace Agreements would be totally different if the genocide executed by Greater Serbian aggression had been recognized earlier. Today, the matter needs to be addressed in the context of constitutional changes because law cannot be drawn out of genocide. Social order cannot be fashioned where benefits and unquestionable categories by certain people are established through genocide. The crime of genocide created Republika Srpska on the soil of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it is essential that this act and its perpetrators be judged in front of the international institutions of law by the principle of justice.

We are apparently facing the crimes of continued, systematic, and consistent concealing, minimization, relativization, and denial of the aggressive war and crime of genocide, equaling the role of genocide victims and the executors of genocide, and reduction of crimes against humanity and international law down to merely war crimes and crimes committed by all “parties”, which is in contravention of the state of facts and all the available relevant and valid documents, scientific facts, empiric data, human and social findings, experience and knowledge of the surviving genocide victims and scientists – scholars.

We must not turn the genocide against Bosniaks in Srebrenica into “events marking the genocide” and do nothing on the side of law and justice. The act of genocide must be prosecuted to give lasting content to the constitution and structure of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Humanity, people of the world, cannot allow genocide to sustain the political and social activities of a certain people as if such were a normal course of events. The final judgments of international and national courts on genocide in Srebrenica are quite sufficient, materially and legal, reason to abolish the name of the Republic Srpska.

5. The existence of Republika Srpska directly discriminates against victims of genocide and instills fear in survivors of new crimes

Srebrenica should be given autonomy, self-determination, uniqueness and special status. It cannot be a part of, or under the authority of the entity whose army and police committed the crime of genocide against the Bosniak population. Srebrenica must be ensured an independent status, under the jurisdiction of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the United Nations. Allowing those who have killed to govern is unseen, immoral, inhumane and illegal as well as anti-Bosniak, anti-Bosnian and uncivilized. Those who are not aware of those are causing moral, legal, anthropological and cultural injustice. In other words Republika Srpska (RS) is contributing to the ongoing destruction of Srebrenica that was started by the RS army and police.

Institute for Research of Genocide Canada urges European actors to stop fascism that continues to Plague Srebrenica because Bosniaks themselves are not strong enough to restore justice and freedom. More specifically, it is important to note that the separation of Srebrenica and Zepa from RS will ensure that in the future the crime of genocide will not be solved through interpersonal and inter-state relations. This is the only way to end the anti-Bosniak, anti-Bosnian and uncivilized policy, promoted by Serbian and Croatian leaders. It is an insidious policy, established by Serbian and Croatian nationalist policies that take advantage of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bosniak settlements to resolve their problems.

Bosniaks must sue Republika Srpska in domestic and international courts, and request a suspension of the entity’s jurisdiction in regards to Srebrenica and Zepa because these regions were declared safe zones by the United Nations. Republika Srpska committed genocide, making that the starting point for liberation of Srebrenica and Zepa from its deadly embrace. Srebrenica and Zepa will never be developed under the authority of the entity that committed genocide against the Bosniaks. What RS is currently doing is continuing the burial of the mass grave that was dug out in 1995. The governing bodies of the RS entity believe that Srebrenica will be forgotten in perspective. The existence of Republika Srpska directly discriminates against victims of genocide and instills fear in survivors of new crimes. Dignity must be restored to Srebrenica victims by “liberating" them from the Karadzic and Mladic's successor and murderer.

We need to fight against the genocide against Bosniaks in Srebrenica being turned into an annual funeral at which the religious representatives of the Bosniaks fulfill a religious obligation toward the innocently killed people and pray to God to stop the terrible suffering of the people due to the Greater Serbian expansionist project. It is, likewise, inhuman to submit the suffering of the people to the courtesy condolence speeches of so many domestic and foreign politicians, as if the burial of the remains of Srebrenica’s victims were for them. Dare we admit that the Srebrenica genocide should not and cannot be reduced to an annual funeral and a set of statements from political party representatives on how they will never forget what happened? That is not enough because it distorts and hides the content of the terrible crimes. Is the thought so unorthodox that we emphasize that the genocide against the Bosniaks in Srebrenica is beyond any funeral, which is, of course, a religious obligation for the Bosniak victims, which must be met, and that we emphasize that the genocide is an integral part of the European world in which it became possible to kill people in such a manner? All those who reduce the genocide to a religious act and a set of long speeches by politicians on July 15th are helping us, directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously, in not seeing and understanding what happened in Srebrenica and what is happening to Bosniaks as a community.

Srebrenica should be given autonomy, self-determination, uniqueness and special status. It cannot be a part of, or under the authority of the entity whose army and police committed the crime of genocide against the Bosniak population. Srebrenica must be ensured an independent status, under the jurisdiction of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the United Nations. Allowing those who have killed to govern is unseen, immoral, inhumane and illegal as well as anti-Bosniak, anti-Bosnian and uncivilized. Those who are not aware of those are causing moral, legal, anthropological and cultural injustice. In other words Republika Srpska (RS) is contributing to the ongoing destruction of Srebrenica that was started by the RS army and police.

Institute for Research of Genocide Canada urges European actors to stop fascism that continues to Plague Srebrenica because Bosniaks themselves are not strong enough to restore justice and freedom. More specifically, it is important to note that the separation of Srebrenica and Zepa from RS will ensure that in the future the crime of genocide will not be solved through interpersonal and inter-state relations. This is the only way to end the anti-Bosniak, anti-Bosnian and uncivilized policy, promoted by Serbian and Croatian leaders. It is an insidious policy, established by Serbian and Croatian nationalist policies that take advantage of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bosniak settlements to resolve their problems.

Bosniaks must sue Republika Srpska in domestic and international courts, and request a suspension of the entity’s jurisdiction in regards to Srebrenica and Zepa because these regions were declared safe zones by the United Nations. Republika Srpska committed genocide, making that the starting point for the liberation of Srebrenica and Zepa from its deadly embrace. Srebrenica and Zepa will never be developed under the authority of the entity that committed genocide against the Bosniaks. What RS is currently doing is continuing the burial of the mass grave that was dug out in 1995. The governing bodies of the RS entity believe that Srebrenica will be forgotten in perspective. The existence of Republika Srpska directly discriminates against victims of genocide and instills fear in survivors of new crimes. Dignity must be restored to Srebrenica victims by “liberating" them from the Karadzic and Mladic's successor and murderer.

Professor Emir Ramic

Chairman of the Institute for Research of Genocide, Canada

Sources of scientific knowledge:

1.Institute for Research of Crimes against Humanity and International Law, University of Sarajevo

2. “Preporod”, Bosniak Cultural Association, Sarajevo

3. Institute for Research of Genocide, Canada

4.The International Criminal Tribunal for areas of the former Yugoslavia

5. The International Court of Justice

Facts about the Srebrenica genocide

1. Three years before the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide, Serbs torched Bosniak villages and killed at least 3,166 Bosniaks around Srebrenica. In 1993, the UN described the besieged situation in Srebrenica as a "slow-motion process of genocide." In July 1995, Serbs forcibly expelled 25,000 Bosniaks, brutally raped many women and girls, and systematically killed 8,000+ men and boys (DNA confirmed).

2. Srebrenica Genocide is judicial fact recognized first by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia {ICTY} and subsequently by the International Court of Justice {ICJ}

3. The Srebrenica Genocide is the largest mass murder in Europe since World War II.

4. In 2004, in a unanimous ruling on the “Prosecutor v. Krstić” case, ICTY ruled that the massacre of the enclave’s male inhabitants constituted a crime of genocide.

5. Theodor Meron, the presiding judge, stated: “By seeking to eliminate a part of the Bosnian Muslims, the Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide. They targeted for extinction the 40,000 Bosnian Muslims living in Srebrenica, a group which was emblematic of the Bosnian Muslims in general. They stripped all the male Muslim prisoners, military and civilian, elderly and young, of their personal belongings and identification, and deliberately and methodically killed them solely on the basis of their identity”.

6. In February 2007 ICJ concurred with the ICTY judgement that the atrocities committed at Srebrenica constituted a genocide, stating: The ICJ concludes that the acts committed at Srebrenica falling within Article II (a) and (b) of the Convention were committed with the specific intent to destroy in part the group of the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina as such; and accordingly that these were acts of genocide, committed by members of the VRS in and around Srebrenica from about 13 July 1995. Both the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives passed resolutions in 2005 acknowledging the genocide that the Serbian forces perpetrated in Srebrenica and all of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992-1995. In 2009. The European Parliament declared 11th July the official day of remembrance for the victims of the Srebrenica genocide. The Canadian Parliament passed resolutions in 2010 acknowledging the genocide that the Serbian forces perpetrated in Srebrenica and Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992-1995.