Changing the name of the streets in Srebrenica, without public and transparent procedures and without the participation of Bosniak representatives, is not an adequate way of acting, said the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (OHR).
Commenting on yesterday’s decision of the Srebrenica Municipal Assembly to change the name of the streets in that city, the OHR says that this does not contribute to reconciliation and building trust in society.
Representatives of the Bosniak people did not participate in making the decision on renaming the streets, as they left the session of the Srebrenica Municipal Assembly before the vote. For them, it is unacceptable that the streets in Srebrenica get the names of those who participated in crimes in the last and in the Second World War.
According to the adopted proposal, among others, Maršala Tito Street should henceforth be called Ulica Republike Srpska, Trg Mihajlo Bjelakovića should be renamed Trg Republika Srpske, City Park Srebrenica into Park Major Kosta Todorović, and Reuf Selmanagić Crnog Street was proposed to be named Dubrovačka Street.
Not a single street in Srebrenica bears the name of the victims of the genocide, which was determined by the judgments of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts.
This is the third time since 1995 that street names have been changed in Srebrenica. The last changes were agreed upon in 2002, with the help of representatives of the international community.
