The director of the Srebrenica Memorial Center, Emir Suljagić, filed a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina against the State Minister of Finance and Treasury, Srđan Amidžić, for the criminal offense of “failure to execute the decisions of the High Representative”.
As stated in the criminal complaint, Amidžić, acting in his capacity as a responsible civil servant and member of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, knowingly and continuously failed to fulfill the obligations arising from the decision of the High Representative of September 20, 2023, which passed the Law on Amendments to the Law on the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center Memorial and Graveyards for Genocide Victims from 1995.
In the report, which Detektor journalists had access to, the fact that the high representative himself, when making the changes, emphasized the need to allow the Memorial Center to develop and expand its activities in the field of research and education, precisely for the purpose of preventing denial and revisionism of the genocide. The amendments to that law, among other things, significantly expanded the mandate of the Memorial Center in the areas of genocide research and education about genocide. In particular, the Department for Genocide Research and Genocide Education was established as an organizational unit within the Memorial Center by a new member.
Despite this, as stated in the criminal complaint, since the adoption of the changes, the Memorial Center has not been able to carry out the legally prescribed organization and functions of the Department in full capacity.
“In particular, the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina, under the leadership of Minister Srđan Amidžić, did not take the necessary actions within its competence to ensure the implementation of the legally prescribed organizational structure and financial assumptions for the execution of the legally established mandate of the Memorial Center,” the criminal complaint states.
The application further states that there is a reason to suspect that this is not an ordinary administrative dispute between two institutions, but rather a possible deliberate non-implementation of a legally binding decision of the high representative.
The memorial center has repeatedly addressed the competent institutions, including the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BiH, with requests related to harmonization of systematization, provision of necessary budget funds and creation of other financial and administrative assumptions for the implementation of changes in the law.
Despite these requests, Srđan Amidžić, according to the available documentation, continuously refused or failed to take actions that were necessary for the implementation of the changes prescribed by law, states Emir Suljagić, director of the Srebrenica Memorial Center, in the criminal complaint, reports BIRN BiH.
