The Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina strongly condemns the decision to promote the Vilina Vlas hotel near Višegrad as part of the official tourist offer in Belgrade – a place that served as a camp for the systematic detention and rape of Bosniak girls and women during the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Promoting such a place without any context, recognition and respect for the victims represents a deep moral failing and is part of a broader practice of denying, relativizing and normalizing genocide and other crimes committed against Bosniaks. Places of suffering cannot and must not be presented as tourist attractions without the truth about what happened there,” the Islamic Community said in a statement.
It is emphasized that the systematic detention of women and girls, with the aim of raping them, humiliating them and forcing them to become pregnant, represented a crime without historical precedent in modern Europe.
“This practice was part of an organized policy whose goal was the destruction of dignity, the destruction of the family and an attack on the biological continuity of the Bosniak people. Such crimes left lasting consequences for the survivors, their families and the entire society,” it was emphasized in the statement.
The Islamic community recalled that from the first days after the war, it supported the surviving victims of sexual violence, standing by them in the fight for dignity, recognition and justice.
“Our support for victims’ associations continues even today, aware that the process of healing and social recognition of their suffering is not over yet. The community knows best what kind of trauma survivors have gone through and how important it is that their truth is never hushed up or suppressed. We call on the organizers of the fair, as well as the competent institutions, to urgently review this decision and to show a minimum of respect for the victims. Confronting the past, not concealing it, is the only way to true peace and stability in the region,” it is emphasized in the statement.
The Islamic Community says it remains firmly committed to truth, justice and the dignity of every victim.
“Our compassion and solidarity with the survivors remain permanent and unquestionable,” said a statement from the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, reported MINA.
