prijava
SARAJEVO, September 27 (FENA) - A group of several Bosnians and Herzegovinians and Americans of BiH origin joined around a “Working Group for Bosnia and Herzegovina” sent a letter to BiH High Representative Christian Schmidt urging him to use his Bonn powers and allow war survivors to mark the sites of suffering.
As they warned, in the BiH entity of Republika Srpska, the perpetrators of atrocities are, as a rule, glorified, while the survivors are banned or vigorously discouraged from placing memorials to the victims.
They believe that it is crucial, in terms of the rule of law, restorative justice and reconciliation, to defend the human right to truth and to memorialization.
“Survivors of the Omarska concentration camp in Prijedor municipality, for example, are not allowed to erect memorials to victims. They were only allowed to gather at the site for a few hours one day each year to give commemorative speeches and lay flowers in front of the infamous white house where detainees were tortured and killed,” it is said in the letter.
They further state that at least 122 detainees at the Barutni magacin concentration camp, near Kalinovik, were forcibly executed on 5 August 1992, and 42 victims have not yet been found or identified. Family members are asking for the facility to be protected and for a memorial museum to be established in the main building that was used to hold the detainees, but their efforts have been disabled.
They point out that the High Representative should not miss the fact that at the entrance to Kalinovik, right next to the road from the camp, visitors are greeted by a three-meter mural of former Serbian Army General Ratko Mladić, who is protected by an imposing steel fence.
The Working Group for BiH therefore asked the High Representative to support survivors and family members and to use the Bonn powers and establish protected national memorials.
They suggested that these memorials be set up in Omarska and the Barutni Magacin in a similar way to the Srebrenica Memorial Center, which was established between 2000 and 2007, brought by four high representatives who successively took turns in that position.
“There are numerous other places where crimes were committed such as Keraterm and Trnopolje (in the municipality of Prijedor), in the house in Pionirska Street, the house in Bikavac and the Stražište cemetery (in Višegrad), and in various locations in Foča that also need to be protected in accordance with the desire of the survivors' association,” they added.
They stated that another location that needs to be marked and protected is the former Bone Hospital (currently abandoned), the site of a concentration camp in Stolac where a plaque dedicated to the victims was destroyed. Survivors' associations have called for the site to be protected as a memorial, but have been thwarted in their efforts.
Today, despite recent amendments to the BiH Criminal Code banning genocide denial and glorification of war criminals, numerous provocative statues, plaques, posters, murals and slogans in Republika Srpska continue to indicate that perpetrators of genocide and other crimes are heroes, the Working Group for BiH warns.
“In this way, the Republika Srpska continues to carry out activities begun in 1992, to achieve ethnic homogeneity and heinous efforts that have been condemned as genocide and crimes against humanity. Such practices violate Annex 7 of the Dayton Agreement, which guarantees the right to return of refugees,” reads the letter to Schmidt.
In addition, the denial of genocide, the glorification of war criminals and the celebration of genocide are clear indications that atrocities could recur, making this a matter of the utmost urgency as such negative practices close the possibility of restorative justice and prevent future survivors.
They reminded Schmidt that in his public appearances he alluded to genuine efforts in Germany to deal with the past. There was a genuine public consensus on the need to provide memorials for Holocaust victims and against fascism.
(FENA) A. B.
