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It is not ‘ethnic cleansing’, it is genocide

The term was invented by Serb genocidaires trying to cover up their crimes in the Bosnian war. The United Nations accepted the term “ethnic cleansing” in 1994, describing it as a method used to commit crimes against humanity and war crimes, leading to genocide. Gregory Stanton, the founder of Genocide Watch, defines “ethnic cleansing” as a “euphemism for genocidal practices” …

Genocide

A UN resolution on the Srebrenica genocide ignites old tensions

Leaders from Serbia and Bosnia’s Republika Srpska have been campaigning against the adoption of a UN resolution commemorating the Srebrenica genocide. The resolution condemns “any denial of the Srebrenica genocide” and actions that glorify those convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Milorad Dodik, president of Republika Srpska, and a regular denier of the Srebrenica genocide, said the …

Schrödinger’s genocide

Bosnians have experience with genocide. The genocide of my people was accompanied by the same rhetoric that Israeli officials now espouse: a genocidal army is the only thing standing between Europe and “Muslim barbarians”, they claim. In the case of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza, which the International Court of Justice has already characterised as a plausible genocide, we see …

Bosnia’s Dodik: From moderate to genocide-denying autocrat

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — He was once described in Washington as an anti-nationalist “breath of fresh air” in the murderous, genocide-scarred Balkan morass of ethnically divided Bosnia. The 63-year-old political science graduate first came to prominence in 1998, as a moderate reformist narrowly elected regional prime minister of Republika Srpska, one of Bosnia’s two postwar administrative units. He notoriously defended the …

If nothing is done to curb Serb president’s push for secession of Republika Srpska entity, Bosnians fear another round of violence could ensue. In July 1995, Serb forces killed the 35-year-old’s father, both grandfathers, four uncles and other relatives during the genocide in Srebrenica, which had been declared a United Nations “safe area”. Last week, Dodik announced Republika Srpska would …

Why Bosnia’s ban on genocide denial was a necessity

On July 23, the Office of the High Representative, the top international body overseeing the implementation of the peace agreement that ended Bosnia’s war, criminalised the denial and glorification of genocide in the country. Republika Srpska parliament’s aggressive, united and unapologetic rejection of the legal changes introduced by Inzko demonstrated clearly why criminalisation of genocide denial was an urgent necessity …

Top international official in Bosnia bans denial of genocide

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — The top international official in Bosnia on Friday outlawed 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. “Hate speech, the glorification of war criminals and revisionism or outright denial of genocide and war crimes prevent societies …

Bosnia’s peace envoy imposes ban on genocide denial

Valentin Inzko has set jail terms for anyone who ‘publicly condones, denies, grossly trivialises or tries to justify’ the genocide in Srebrenica or war crimes committed in Bosnia. 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. ‘Serbs must never …

On June 8, a United Nations court upheld the conviction of Bosnian Serb military chief and war criminal Ratko Mladić for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the Bosnian war. Mladić’s legacy Before the war, the territory which today falls within the borders of Republika Srpska was ethnically diverse just like other parts of Bosnia, with around …