Hartmann in Belgrade: Those who deny genocide do not belong in Potočari, nor does Vučić

Former spokesperson for the Hague Tribunal Florence Hartmann emphasizes that the commemoration in Potočari is not a place for those who deny genocide, nor for politicians. As she says, this also applies to the Serbian state leadership and Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić, reports the Patria News Agency.

“This is not a political rally, it is not a conference where you can come and say you disagree or express a different opinion… this is a funeral for the murdered who have been identified during the year and it is not a place for politicians,” Hartmann told reporters in Belgrade.

She supported the stance of the Organizational Committee for the Commemoration of the Srebrenica Victims that no one who denies the Srebrenica genocide, including the state leadership of Serbia, is welcome at the commemoration in Potočari.

“If someone who, throughout the year, either personally or (in another way) does not suppress the denial of that crime in their society, does not belong in Srebrenica, let them come on another date, but not on that day… and that this day is not kidnapped for some political goals by the presence of politicians, when it is a day for the victims,” she said.

She noted that it was her personal opinion, and said that last year she was bothered by the presence of numerous politicians at the Memorial Center.

“I was bothered that so many politicians came last year… they shed a tear for five minutes in front of numerous cameras and leave, and their presence, and this is my personal opinion, was not appropriate for that place,” Hartmann said.

She said that Srebrenica, after 21 years, “represents what it has always represented, one of the greatest crimes within the criminal policy pursued during the war after the breakup of Yugoslavia.”

Hartmann assessed that the denial of that crime is still present, despite numerous documented facts, “thereby, in a way, continuing that policy.”

“Even 21 years later, and regardless of the fact that the crimes in the former Yugoslavia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been extensively researched and documented, we are still at a standstill and in a situation where denial continues,” she said.

The former spokesperson for the Hague Tribunal then spoke at a forum on Srebrenica at the Center for Cultural Decontamination, which was also attended by journalists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia.

The Mayor of Srebrenica Municipality, Ćamil Duraković, recently said that the stance of the Organizational Committee is that no one who denies the judicially recognized facts about the Srebrenica genocide is welcome at the commemoration in Potočari.

“The state leadership of Serbia is very welcome at the commemoration, but before that, they must publicly admit that in July 1995, the Army of Republika Srpska committed genocide in Srebrenica,” said the Mayor of Srebrenica, as reported by B92.