IGK welcomes German President's decision to withdraw award for genocide denier Grief

(Patria) - The Institute for Research of Genocide Canada (IGK) welcomes the decision of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to withdraw the decision to award the genocide denier in Srebrenica Gideon Greif, who will therefore not be awarded the "Order of Merit".

The IGK reminds that on November 1st of this year, Emir Ramić, Director of IGK, sent a letter to the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. In the letter, he quoted parts of the scandalous final report of the so-called Independent International Commission of Republika Srpska, referred to the verdicts of international courts on the genocide in Srebrenica, referred to the statement of the Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress Menachem Z. Rosensaft, who sharply criticized the commission headed by Greif, and also referred to the verdicts of German courts which, in addition to Srebrenica, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, established genocide in other municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the period from 1992 to 1995. Significant parts of these verdicts were also confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

At the end of the letter, Ramić wrote:

"With the call to unconditionally withdraw your decision, we call for a awakening in a world where genocide deniers are rewarded, lies are declared truth, and crimes are considered good. Let us be aware of the position we are in, let us seek ways out, let us be brave, united, educated, and professional in the pursuit of truth and justice. With your proposal, you have humiliated the victims, but the victims will never be defeated because truth and justice are on their side, not yours. Those who deny the decisions of international courts, who violate international law, justice, and truth, who try to revise history, judicial and scientific arguments, and those who recently dangerously threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty, independence, and political subjectivity of the European state of BiH in the name of extremism, belong to the historical inhuman waste against whom, unfortunately, we must fight even more today. We continue the fight for a better future for our civilization, for a world without war and genocide in which peace and respect for the other and different will reign, in which truth will overcome falsehood, justice will overcome injustice, and the culture of remembrance will overcome the culture of forgetting. Join this great human mission and withdraw your decision to award the order to one of the greatest deniers of genocide in the world.".

The civilizational decision of the President of Germany to withdraw the award for the genocide denier is another great victory for the truth and justice about the genocide in Srebrenica. This is another victory in the fight against genocide deniers, falsifiers of historical, judicial, and scientific facts about genocide, and glorifiers of convicted war criminals. In this fight against the rape of truth and justice, on whose outcome depends not only the future of the state of BiH, but also the world in general, the voice of victims and witnesses of genocide and genocide researchers must be heard louder. This voice should, above all, be heard much more strongly by responsible world leaders.

The IGK sincerely thanks for the support that followed after the initiative towards the Office of the German President - primarily from BiH associations in the diaspora. With their active contribution, we have achieved what has been our goal from the beginning - the annulment of the decision to award an order to a person unworthy of any award and any serious academic, social, or state recognition. The IGK will continue to closely monitor activities directed against BiH and will insist on justice and truth every time, and will alert key actors on the global stage. We are sure that we will have the support of our associations and prominent individuals again.