The top international official in Bosnia and Herzegovina has banned denial of genocide in the Balkan country to counter attempts by Bosnia’s Serbs to deny the scope of the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica, Europe’s only post-World War II genocide.
The killings of more than 8,000 Bosniaks by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica was declared a genocide by the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court for Former Yugoslavia. But Bosnian Serb officials and neighbouring Serbia have refused to accept this.
Valentin Inzko, the outgoing head of Bosnia’s Office of the High Representative, or OHR, on Friday imposed changes to the country’s criminal law, introducing prison sentences of up to five years for genocide deniers, and for any glorification of war criminals, including naming of streets or public institutions after them.
Inzko set the jail terms for anyone who “publicly condones, denies, grossly trivialises or tries to justify” the genocide or war crimes committed during Bosnia’s 1992-95 international armed conflict.
“Genocide in Srebrenica, war crimes and crimes against humanity … must not be forgotten or denied,” his decree read.
As the top international body overseeing the implementation of the peace agreement that ended Bosnia’s war, the OHR has the authority to impose decisions or dismiss officials who undermine the post-war ethnic balance and reconciliation efforts between the Bosniaks, who are mostly Muslim, Bosnia’s Serbs and Croats.
