IGK: Denying the Srebrenica genocide is a criminal act, not freedom of speech

(Patria) - The Institute for Research of Genocide Canada (IGK) issued a press release today regarding the comments of the Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milanko Kajganić, after 30 reports of genocide denial were rejected, stating that denying the Srebrenica genocide is a criminal act, not freedom of speech.

- Someone who denies the Holocaust does not do so in the name of freedom of speech, but in the name of glorifying war crimes and Nazism. The same should apply to Greater Serbian deniers of the Srebrenica genocide, which, after the Holocaust, was the first legally verified genocide in Europe, meaning it has both legal and historical validity - the statement reads.

IGK believes that denying the Srebrenica genocide is a criminal act, not freedom of speech, and that "subsuming the celebration of genocide under freedom of speech is also a criminal act and complicity in the celebration of genocide."

- Genocide denial in Bosnia and Herzegovina represents a new civilizational decline and a continuation of genocidal activities, primarily against the Bosniak people. Greater Serbian and Greater Serbian revisionists are trying to hide all traces of their crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina and continue with the further destruction of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, against which they rose up in the 1990s to create a 'Greater Serbia' from other countries - it states.

As further stated, "Serbian genocide deniers show that they do not recognize the international order and the rulings of the Hague Tribunal, and that they develop negation towards everyone who does not fit into a 'homogeneous' ethnic group from the outdated organic concept of the nation."

IGK states that "they are using world powers today and trying to present themselves in a different light that hides the fact that they committed genocide and other crimes against humanity and human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina."

At the same time, IGK believes that attempts to deny the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina will only lead to new conflicts and breaks in cooperation between independent states in the Balkans.

- The combination of denial and inversion of truth has the effect desired by those who promote it, namely the continuation of the polarization of the region's population based on controversial symbolic representations of the past and responsibility for it. This is a mechanism that turns the crime of genocide against the people killed in Srebrenica into a continuing crime - IGK states, emphasizing that denial is not just a refusal to acknowledge a terrible act.

- It is the instrumentalization of that act to ensure its continued effectiveness and to encourage conditions under which any side may find itself in the commission of renewed acts of inter-communal violence that escalate to the level of genocide. Individual acts of denying the Srebrenica genocide cannot be isolated from the political project of division and genocide of which they are a part. Markers must be placed against the constant and deliberate muddying of the waters, the intentional presentation of false information, and the strategic spread of hate speech under the guise of freedom of speech - the statement reads.

IGK emphasizes that the dignity of genocide verdicts must be maintained and their truth defended, especially given the extremely high threshold for reaching such a verdict.

- Those who wish to challenge them should be compelled to find ways to respect them. People have the right to their opinions and to express them, as long as they do not intentionally harm others and do not despise court-established truths. No one has the right to continue the project of physical genocide through symbolic means in the hope of securing its goals and, in the worst case, of actually reviving it - states the press release from the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada.