Bosniaks in RS are unprotected, attacks against them are orchestrated

Regarding the frequent attacks on Bosniak returnees in Republika Srpska, the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada and the Congress of North American Bosniaks issued a press release, reports the news agency Patria.

-We are witnessing the continuous endangerment of basic human rights and freedoms of returnees, i.e., survivors of aggression and genocide, by the ruling establishment in the smaller Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity. Attacks on Bosniaks in Prijedor, Bratunac, Srebrenica, Vlasenica, Konjevic Polje, Kotor Varos, etc., are an expression of the continuous anti-Bosnian-Herzegovinian and especially anti-Bosniak, discriminatory policy and practice, which has been implemented since the Dayton legalization of the results of aggression and genocide, embodied in the entity of Republika Srpska.

The attack on Bosniak returnees in Tomislavgrad is also an expression of anti-Bosnian-Herzegovinian and especially anti-Bosniak, discriminatory policy and practice, carried out by Croatian nationalist groups.

Through systematic attacks on returnees of Bosniak nationality, additional pressure is exerted, and the reconstruction of Bosniak communities and areas, destroyed by genocide and mass exterminations by those who participated in the genocide and heinous crimes against Bosniaks, is prevented.

Although political representatives of the RS entity, which was created on the genocide and persecution of Bosniaks, try to portray attacks on Bosniaks as incidents, it is clear that these are systematic attacks orchestrated from the very top by those who participated in the implementation of genocide and ethnic cleansing, as well as by those who follow the ideology of genocide and are now in power.

We call on the governments of the USA and Canada and the governments of all other member states of the Peace Implementation Council in BiH to immediately use all possible democratic means to stop the discriminatory policy and practice of the ruling establishment in the Republika Srpska entity, which, 20 years after the Dayton Agreement, continues to deny the Bosniak people, their history, culture, tradition, and language, as well as the sovereignty, integrity, territorial integrity, and statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We call on the High Representative in BiH to ensure the full protection of the human rights and freedoms of Bosniaks in the smaller Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity by using his authority.

We call on Bosniaks, returnees, survivors of aggression and genocide living in the smaller Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity, and especially their political representatives in the political bodies of the entity, to raise their voices and show the wider public through democratic means that they live in apartheid conditions.

We call on Bosniak leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina to finally stand up in defense of their people, primarily returnees and victims of aggression and genocide.

Finally, we call on international organizations for the protection of human rights and freedoms, primarily Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, to pay regular attention in their activities to the endangerment of human rights and freedoms in the smaller Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity.

We do not accept the apology of the Mayor of Prijedor, Marko Pavić, because although the attack clearly had a national motive, the competent prosecutor did not request custody, so the attackers on the Prijedor Bosniaks are still at large.

The mayor's apology should entail concrete measures to strengthen the security of Prijedor Bosniaks, which primarily relates to the arrest of the perpetrators of this heinous crime. Precisely because there are no concrete measures for the protection of returnees, Bosniaks are leaving their city again, according to the statement of these two organizations.