IGK: Attack on Memiševiç is a result of anti-Bosniak policy, everyone must stand in defense of returnees

(Patria) - Following the horrific attack on returnees Fadil and Ajša Memiševiç from the village of Omeragiçi near Višegrad, the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada reacted.

They state that we are witnessing the continuous endangerment of the fundamental human rights and freedoms of returnees, i.e., survivors of aggression and genocide in the smaller Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity. 

"The attack on Fadil and Ajša Memiševiç from the village of Omeragiçi near Višegrad is 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 foundations of the entity of Republika Srpska on the soil of Bosnia and Herzegovina were laid on mass graves of Bosniaks and the most monstrous crimes that the human mind can barely comprehend. Today, this entity, with its political representatives, continues the idea of creating Greater Serbia at the expense of Bosnia and Herzegovina, nurturing the idea of criminals who have been convicted for aggression, war crimes, and genocide. Today, this genocidal entity is an example of apartheid in Europe. The entity of Republika Srpska has never been a safe environment for returnees. The violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms, the denial of the right to the Bosnian language, to a national group of subjects, inequality in employment in the public sector, and above all, the continuous endangerment of the physical safety of returnees, clearly indicate that the goal of the entity of Republika Srpska remains the same as during the aggression and genocide: an ethnically clean environment that should be separated from its motherland Bosnia and Herzegovina at a convenient moment and annexed to Serbia.

The continuous denial of the crimes of aggression and genocide, the endangerment of the fundamental human rights and freedoms of returnees, and the violent prohibition of remembrance for the victims and witnesses of aggression and genocide by the political establishment of the entity of Republika Srpska is a continuation of aggression and genocide in new circumstances and by other means, but with the same goal.

Through systematic attacks on returnees, additional pressure is exerted, and the reconstruction of communities and areas destroyed by genocide and mass exterminations by those who participated in the genocide and barbaric crimes is prevented. Although the political representatives of the entity of Republika Srpska, which was created through genocide and persecution, try to portray these attacks 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 Government of Canada and the governments of all other member states of the Peace Implementation Council in Bosnia and Herzegovina to urgently use all possible democratic means to stop the discriminatory policy and practice of the ruling establishment in the entity of Republika Srpska, which, twenty years after the Dayton Peace 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 Bosnia and Herzegovina to ensure the full protection of human rights and freedoms in the smaller Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity by using his powers.

We call on Bosniaks, returnees, survivors of aggression and genocide living in the smaller Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity, and 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 conditions of apartheid.

We call on Bosniak leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina to finally stand 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 to pay regular attention in their activities to the endangerment of human rights and freedoms in the smaller Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity," the IGK announced.