Numerous Condemnations of Kabić's Denial of Crimes against Bosniaks and Croats in Prijedor

The Independent Bloc, Naša stranka, and the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina reacted to today's events in the Prijedor Assembly, when councillors from DF and SDA left the session due to provocations. Specifically, the head of the SNSD councillor club, Dragoslav Kabić, demanded that the organisers of the White Ribbon Day, held on 31 May in Prijedor, be sanctioned, denying that Bosniaks and Croats were marked in such a way during the Serbian aggression. 

The Independent Bloc condemns the actions of Kabić, the club head, and reminds that war criminals Milomir Stakić, Zoran Žigić, Mlađo Radić, Duško Tadić, Duško Sikirica, Drago Radaković, Draško Krndija, Željko Bulatović, and others have been convicted for war crimes in Prijedor. 

- The Hague Tribunal established that Bosniaks and Croats had to wear white ribbons, and that legal fact is not something open to debate or political manipulation, and numerous final verdicts testify that Prijedor is, unfortunately, one of the symbols of crimes in the past war committed by military formations of Bosnian Serbs and the JNA, whose crimes are now denied by Kabić and his associates from SNSD. Denial and negation of the truth will constantly return us to the past, where Kabić's boss Dodik wants us to be. Victims do not deserve such treatment, and we in the Independent Bloc insist on the protection of victims, respect for the rule of law, and the implementation of final court verdicts, while Kabić, his political boss, and those like him belong on the rubbish heap of history. That fascism and nationalism must be defeated - stated Senad Šepić, president of the Independent Bloc and a member of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina.        

The president of Naša stranka, Predrag Kojović, said that with his scandalous action, Kabić deeply insulted the numerous victims of torture they endured in that city during the war years. Kojović states that the truth about the Prijedor crimes against the non-Serb population in the last war has been proven from multiple aspects.

- It is clear that denial is a cowardly, but also the last and desperate act of anyone, even against crimes against humanity, and it was precisely the reaction of the SNSD representative in the Prijedor Assembly that demonstrated this. But it is impossible to eternally deny the facts, including the legal truth established in competent courts and countless testimonies - Kojović states.

He points out that young people of different nationalities have shown they are far ahead of the politics that Kabić promotes, and that they are ready to build a better life in Prijedor.

- The youth of Prijedor, both Serbs and Bosniaks, through joint efforts organise remembrance of the fascist actions of the then Prijedor authorities and show that, compared to faded nationalists, they have more heart and brain and want to live in a society that is aware of the burden of the past but is turned towards a common, European future. Those young people are both my inspiration and role model, and I hope that after October, a time will come when, instead of criminals and crimes, we will promote them, today's heroes who build togetherness and Bosnia and Herzegovina, not those who destroy it by not allowing us, even after more than two decades, to free ourselves from the burden of crimes whose authors are unfortunately still in politics. And, just to avoid confusion, this does not only apply to Serbs and Prijedor, but to all those who to this day survive politically by insulting victims and manipulating the war trauma of the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina - Kojović concluded.

Amer Jerlagić, president of the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina, condemned Kabić's attack. 

- I tell the citizens living on the other side of the entity boundary line, you are not alone. I tell the Bosniak and Croat returnees who are daily discriminated against and suffer segregation, that we will not give up. I call on those decision-makers in Sarajevo and Banja Luka to finally accept the facts about genocide, white ribbons, and crimes from Prijedor to Srebrenica - stated the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

During the war in Prijedor, according to official data, 3,137 people were killed, including 256 women and 102 children. More than 30,000 people passed through the Prijedor camps. The authorities of Prijedor still do not allow the construction of a memorial to the murdered children of Prijedor.