Inzko: They have a deadline to remove the plaque for the war criminal, or Dodik will face travel ban

(Patria) - German-language media are writing about the crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina that must not be forgotten, mentioning the role of writers such as Saša Stanišić, Anne Baar, and Marko Dinić. They also touch upon Valentin Inzko.

In an interview with the Austrian Standard, High Representative Valentin Inzko spoke about the UN video conference, which was also attended by the presidents of SNSD and HDZ BiH, Milorad Dodik and Dragan Čović.

"Russia, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, called for this informal virtual meeting, wanting to give Dodik and Čović, in particular, the opportunity to present their opposing views regarding my report of November 5th," said Inzko, explaining that SDA president Bakir Izetbegović refused to participate in the meeting, criticizing that representatives of the three largest parties were invited, not members of the Presidency. He added that his participation in the conference was not initially planned but that he did so at the request of European member states of the Security Council. When asked by the Standard journalist to comment on Dodik's attack on him, Inzko said: "Dodik spoke for 30 minutes, perhaps longer. He called me and former High Representative Lord Paddy Ashdown criminals. All members of the Security Council criticized the glorification of war criminals, such as the memorial plaque for war criminal Radovan Karadžić in Pale. Dodik suggested that we remove it together. It doesn't cross my mind to remove a plaque in honor of Karadžić, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes. First, the relevant law or decree must be changed, and then the plaque must be removed or replaced. This should be done by the one who ordered, placed, and ceremonially unveiled the plaque, and that was Milorad Dodik."

When asked about the consequences of this informal gathering, Inzko replied that in the last 11 years, he has never experienced such solidarity from countries, especially the USA and Germany. The Belgian delegation initiated the adoption of a law that would sanction the denial of war crimes such as genocide. Inzko emphasized that the members of the Security Council were clearly informed at the UN conference about what was happening on the ground in BiH.

"Local politicians were given the opportunity to review the Law on the denial of genocide, and then the next steps will follow. The same applies if the plaque in honor of Radovan Karadžić is not removed. I have set a deadline of six months for it to be removed. The next goal is a travel ban for Dodik to EU countries," said Inzko.

Responding to the journalist's observation that Russia is increasingly siding with Dodik and asking about Serbia's position, Inzko replied: "Russia wants the position of the High Representative to be abolished, and thus it is on the same line as Dodik. Serbia, in its statements so far, has always referred to the Dayton Agreement and respected the factual situation," Inzko said in an interview with the Standard newspaper.

"The awarding of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2019 stirred up terrible wounds and memories. Peter Handke is accused with irrefutable evidence of ignoring or downplaying Serbian crimes," writes the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "A few days later, before the enraged Mothers of Srebrenica set off for protests in Stockholm, the writer Saša Stanišić, originally from BiH, said in his speech on the occasion of receiving the award for the best German book: 'I was lucky to escape what Peter Handke does not describe in his texts.' This poignant remark referred to the statement of Jan Wagner, the recipient of the Büchner Prize in 2017. It consisted of a single sentence spread over six lines, turned into verse. Its title, combined with the cemeteries the author refers to in the first line, conveys the endless suffering during the siege of Sarajevo," FAZ states.

The German newspaper recalls how Karadžić's Serbs attacked the city from the surrounding hills with shells and snipers, and that 11,000 people were killed, some of them in two massacres at Markale. It also writes that the attackers targeted UN soldiers, taking them hostage. The city was supplied thanks to an airlift, and German Transall cargo planes had to land at a steep angle to avoid being hit. However, the name Sarajevo in Jan Wagner's poem represented all other cities that suffered, including Novi Grad (Bosanski Novi), Tuzla, and especially Srebrenica.

FAZ also points out that cemeteries with tens of thousands of tombstones and headstones have sprung up on the hills and fields around Sarajevo and Srebrenica. It states that Jan Wagner connects with this peaceful, omnipresent image and arranges beehives with bees among the white, Muslim tombstones. Every beekeeper understands what the writer intended to convey. The poem mentions bee colonies, these "peoples with tens of thousands of bees in each hive, side by side, without anyone bothering anyone, as symbols of pulsating life, coexistence, and diligence - and in contrast to them are the wartime events between different ethnic groups in BiH. Where people recently fought, killed, and were buried, new life has returned."

From the perspective of bees, which, loaded with nectar and pollen, return to their hives in a steep flight like planes within the airlift, in a radius of 3 km, the vast fields of tombstones look 'tiny and dead,' the FAZ article continues in poetic language. "Beneath the tombstones on the slopes of Sarajevo and Srebrenica lie sons and husbands, whom their mothers and wives come to mourn. Above all, them, and especially the vocal delegation of mothers who went to Stockholm to protest the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Handke, do not allow the grass of oblivion to grow easily over the war crimes, on which beehives are now located. Poets have now joined them. Jan Wagner discreetly reminds us of the terrible crimes in the heart of Europe that must not be forgotten. He is joined by a generation that has grown out of the former conflicting parties: a generation of writers in German such as Anne Baar, Marko Dinić, and Saša Stanišić – diligent bees, who, like those in Sarajevo, keep the memory of the wars in the former Yugoslavia alive. They give us the honey of literature, which Hugo von Hoffmannsthal announced in his Ballad of Life," FAZ writes in an article titled "Peoples Who Know How to Live Together."