Zvizdić: The BiH Prosecutor's Office should react more efficiently to any denial of genocide

"The Prosecutor's Office has a good legal basis to be able to initiate such proceedings and bring to justice those who deny the genocide and who are trying to make a crude revision of history. These are the same ones who glorify war criminals and who call the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina a civil war," said Zvizdić in an interview with Anadolu Agency on the occasion of the 28th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica.

He assessed that the denial of genocide is support for the project of planning and executing the genocide itself.

"As we know, it is the last stage in the definition of the crime of genocide, and I expect domestic institutions to be more efficient, first of all, the Prosecutor's Office, and then the courts, to be depoliticized when we talk about such important matters as the denial of genocide," said Zvizdić.

He said that there is almost no country that does not commemorate July 11, and he emphasized that only in the territory of the entity of Republika Srpska and Serbia, is the genocide in Srebrenica continuously denied.

"I think that everything is clear to all people in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I think everything is clear to the international community as well. There is almost no country that does not commemorate July 11 in some way as a memory of the crime of genocide in Srebrenica. Only this area of Bosnia and Herzegovina remains - the RS and Serbia, which persistently and consistently against all verdicts contest the genocide in Srebrenica and all other crimes committed throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina," said Zvizdić.

As he said, there are numerous irrefutable pieces of evidence about the genocide in Srebrenica that have been documented and therefore attempts to revise history will not succeed.

Commenting on the statement of the President of the RS, Milorad Dodik, that he will block the distribution of funds for the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the European Union's grant funds, Zvizdić said that Dodik is "slowly losing himself in the emptiness of his political activity".

"The bottom line is that Dodik is surrounded by a large number of protectors of his ego and his politics and he lives in a state of siege completely separated from real politics. What Dodik is doing is that he himself is hastening his departure from the political scene. The blocking of any projects by the representatives of the RS always returns like a boomerang and causes harm, not to those politicians from the RS, because they live quite well, but harms the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially the citizens of the entity of RS.

No effect will be produced by the RS officials if they block any projects at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina, projects that go towards the Federation of BiH. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is two or three times stronger economically than the RS entity, which is in full political, social and economic regression. The lack of money makes Dodik even more nervous," Zvizdić pointed out.

He emphasized that he does not agree with the logic and interpretations that state institutions cannot stop Dodik from his statements and performances that violate the constitutional order.

"The state institutions have both the capacity and the power to arrest anyone who works to destroy the constitutional order because no one can have immunity who acts against the constitutional order. State institutions are quite able to stop Dodik and that will certainly happen with the help of the international community or not. The moment Dodik signs the decree on the entry into force of the law in the RS, he consciously enters the zone of a criminal act. Then the Prosecution cannot remain silent, the Prosecution must open the case and Dodik must be brought in for questioning," said the Chairman of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Dodik signed a decree on the promulgation of the Law on Amendments to the Law on the Publication of Laws and Other Regulations of the RS. These are amendments to the Law adopted by the National Assembly of the RS at the seventh special session, held on June 21, 2023.

With Dodik's signature, the Official Gazette of the RS will not publish the decisions of the HR, which represents a direct anti-Dayton action and an attack on the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Last weekend, High Representative Christian Schmidt made the latest laws and decisions of the RSNA null and void. 

Commenting on the latest decisions made by Schmidt, Zvizdić said that he did not even expect that the first decision of the high representative of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina would be the dismissal of Dodik.

"It just doesn't work like that. It would not even be justified to do so. Firstly, legal preconditions must be created, so if he continues to violate the law, then there will be sanctions that ultimately mean a ban of political activity, and Dodik seems to be heading in that direction," explained Zvizdić.

(FENA) S. R.

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