Ambassador of the United States of America to Bosnia and Herzegovina Michael J. Murphy said that the repeated attempts to deny the genocide in Srebrenica by the President of the RS Milorad Dodik, who did it again yesterday, cannot change the facts, nor the truth.
“Denial of genocide and war crimes and the glorification of war criminals are reprehensible and irresponsible. It insults the victims of all ethnicities and compounds the suffering of their families. It tears at the fabric of the society of Bosnia and Herzegovina, threatening BiH stability. It is also against the law of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Ambassador Murphy said in a video message on Twitter.
He said that he wanted to be very clear and stated that the genocide took place in Srebrenica in 1995.
“The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice established the facts of Srebrenica beyond a shadow of a doubt, determining that the units of the RS Army at the command of Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadžić committed genocide, killing more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys,” pointed out the US Ambassador.
He underlined that Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić are war criminals, not heroes and that the guilt for the genocide in Srebrenica is individual and borne by those who committed those atrocious acts.
“But society, political leaders and institutions have a moral obligation to address the harm of what has been done. The first step is accepting and acknowledging the facts established through the judicial process and underpinned by scientific evidence,” said Ambassador Murphy.