The Bosnian Constitutional Court repealed this Friday a law of the Serb entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina that annulled the application in its territory of the norm that prohibits the denial of the Srebrenica genocide and war crimes.
In announcing its decision, the court underlined in a statement that the laws imposed by the International High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which includes the one that prohibits the denial of genocidethey have the same validity as any legislation adopted by national international institutions.
About a year ago, the High International Representative, the Austrian Valetin Inzko, meanwhile replaced by the German Christian Schmidt, used his special powers to enforce the law prohibiting denial of genocide and war crimes committed in the country during the civil war in this former Yugoslav republic (1922-1995), or the exaltation of those convicted of war crimes. ‘
The rule provides for up to five years in prison for those who do not respect the new provision.
The law was boycotted by the leaders of the Republika Srpska (RS, the Bosnian Serb entity) and increased tensions in the divided country, with the second entity, the so-called Federation of Bosnia, shared territorially between Bosnians (Muslims) and Croats.
Until now no official charges were filed after Inzko’s decisionbased essentially on the events of Srebrenica, where around 7,000 Muslim men and boys of fighting age were killed by Bosnian Serb forces in the final phase of the conflict, in July 1995, when they conquered this enclave designated as a “security zone” by the UN.
The former International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) defined this military action as genocide. and sentenced General Ratko Mladic to life imprisonmentthen military commander of RS, in addition to imposing other heavy sanctions.
The Bosnian Serbs acknowledge that unacceptable crimes were committed in Srebrenica, in particular summary executions, but they refuse to call it genocide for two essential reasons: the elderly, Muslim women and children were separated from men of fighting age and sent to other regions of Bosnia. . They also argue that most of the detained Bosnians, who managed to obtain weapons, were killed in combat while trying to break through the Serbian lines and escape from Srebrenica to reach the territories controlled by their army.
Source: Observadora
