Milorad Dodik, a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) paid tribute to the victims of the Holocaust by visiting the infamous Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, while at the same time denying the Srebrenica genocide in his country.
He visited Auschwitz on Saturday, and photos of the leader from Laktasi were posted on social networks with a message.
“We remember with sadness ‘Crystal Night’, in which the Nazis opened one of the most monstrous pages in the history of mankind 83 years ago,” it was stated by the Dodik’s party.
Visits to World War II execution sites are a laudable practice of a culture of remembrance, but in the performance of some of our political leaders, they are given a different context. Remembering the crimes of World War II but ignoring those in its recent history and recklessly denying them, is one of the ultimate hypocrisies.
In past years, Dodik has distinguished himself through the awarding of convicted criminals, naming institutions after war executioners, and allowing the streets in the part of BiH wherehe is the leader bears the name of the supreme authority of the Chetnik movement, Draza Mihailovic.
The leader of the SNSD, if he had at least a bit of political pragmatism, nothing else, would start from the crimes that happened in BiH and which were confirmed in The Hague.
All those who rightly show respect to the victims in Auschwitzshould also look in their courtyard and ask themselves who is the man after whom the street they walk on every day is named. Such double standards do not fit in at all to paying tribute to the victims of World War II, and there are such streets in many cities in BiH.
How can legally convicted war criminals from the last war be welcomed and rewarded, and then present themselves to the great admirers of all victims in front of the European world...Sometimes it takes so little even in your own backyard for someone to prove that he is honest, that he is an anti-fascist and a man who values victims. It’s not always necessary to go miles away.
E.Dz.
Source: Klix.ba