As a result of the mild treatment of the international community and its unwillingness to confront nationalist ideologies and territorial ambitions, nationalists and secessionists are encouraged to continue their efforts to undermine the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was announced today in Sarajevo ahead of the regular session of the Association of Independent Intellectuals “Circle 99”.
David Pettigrew, Professor of Philosophy and Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Southern Connecticut State University and member of the Board of Directors of Yale University’s Genocide Studies Program, spoke on the topic “Roots of Joint Criminal Enterprises and Genocide in the Coup”.
As he said, the president of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik has recently made an effort to undermine the state by trying to make the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina non-functional. In addition, he reminded that the National Assembly of the RS voted to ignore the decisions of the High Representative and to suspend the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“With these steps, Dodik and the Republika Srpska declared themselves above the law and tried to drive another wedge between the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the entity of the Republika Srpska in search of the goal of secession,” emphasized Pettigrew.
He points out that apart from a few verbal condemnations, there was almost no concrete response to Dodik’s anti-Dayton and unconstitutional actions.
“Yesterday’s limited decisions by the High Representative in response to the RS Assembly were, one might say, too late,” Pettigrew believes.
He pointed out that Bosnia and Herzegovina is now facing increasing instability as a result of the international community’s unwillingness to confront these nationalist ideologies and territorial ambitions.
“As a result of this mild treatment, nationalists and secessionists are encouraged to continue their efforts to undermine Bosnia’s sovereignty,” said the American professor.
He added that the international community decided not to “confront Dodik’s anti-state, anti-deionist behavior that threatens peace, including his flaunting of the rule of law while denying genocide, hate speech.”
“For all practical purposes, the international community has become complicit in continuing the territorial and eliminationist goals of international aggression in the 1990s. Such are the disastrous consequences of the soft treatment of secessionist anti-state behavior,” Pettigrew said.
He believes that High Representative Christian Schmidt should undertake comprehensive transitional justice initiatives to prevent glorification of war criminals, support commemoration, prosecute hate speech and denial of genocide.
“The leadership behind those secessionist initiatives should be sanctioned and temporarily banned from holding public functions, as was done in the past. Furthermore, denying the Dodik genocide, cursing the genocide in Srebrenica and hate speech must be prosecuted by the competent authorities. Genocide denial and speech hate crimes must be prosecuted in order to restore the rule of law, prevent re-traumatization of survivors and prevent the recurrence of crimes. This is fundamental in a post-genocide society. Finally, there should be a greater sense of urgency regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina’s membership of the European Union and its accession to NATO “It is unreasonable to make applicants wait for decades for admission. Such a delay breeds cynicism and undermines the credibility of the EU itself in terms of its commitment to European values and regional security,” said Pettigrew.
With his presentation today, Pettigrew raised his voice in protest against the construction of a museum in memory of the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) on the site of the Heliodrom concentration camp. He reminded that the ICTY found that the HVO committed heinous war crimes in the Heliodrom concentration camp and that a museum commemorating or honoring the HVO at the site of the camp is “simply unthinkable”.
“But despite protests by survivors and victims’ associations, and a recent letter to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken from the BiH Working Group, nothing has been done to stop this betrayal of the truth and insulting survivors,” Pettigrew pointed out.
He concluded that “it is most urgent to recognize that the revisionist HVO museum in Mostar and the anti-state activities of Milorad Dodik are nothing less than the continuation of the territorial and elimination goals of ‘Greater Croatia’ and ‘Greater Serbia’ from the 1990s”.
“As we mark 28 years since the genocide in Srebrenica, let us resolve to oppose nationalism and secessionism, resist genocide denial, hate speech and glorification of war criminals, and support the survivors in their efforts to establish memorials and museums at the sites of the crimes,” Pettigrew said.
Emir Hajdarović, president of the Mostar Camp Inmates Association, said that he will send an official letter to all relevant institutions at all levels of government to set aside a part of the Heliodrom camp area and give it to the assembly for the construction of the Museum of Inmates’ Suffering.
“If these authorities, thanks to their indolence, allowed people convicted of war crimes, that is, not directly to them, but to their political to build a museum that will glorify the military component in that area, we believe that the victims also have the right to form a new museum in that area,” said Hajdarević.
Edin Batlak, president of the Supervisory Board of the Mostar Prisoners’ Association, said that after gathering information from their legal team, they determined that there is a legal basis for initiating criminal charges against the responsible people who participated and are participating in the construction of the aforementioned museum.
“We have denial, we have glorification of people who come from The Hague or other courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Glorification is preparation for a new genocide, for new war crimes, and you have the most brazen denial of crimes, genocide, continuously from the people of Republika Srpska,” Batlak emphasized.
