Canada and Great Britain apologize for military target name scandal "Bosnian Man"

Leaders of Canadian Bosniaks have received written responses from Canada and Great Britain to a joint letter from the Congress of North American Bosniaks (KBSA) and the Institute for Genocide Research Canada (IGK) regarding information that the Canadian government had ordered targets for British soldiers' training, including targets named "Bosnian Man," reports the Patria News Agency.

The letter requested an explanation from the competent Canadian and British state authorities for the naming of military targets, the revocation of the naming, and an apology for this humiliating and discriminatory act, which has returned citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Canada, as survivors of aggression and genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to the horrors of war and violated their sense of security and equality as citizens and a people in Canadian society. The letter also stated that this shameful act of naming military targets is completely unnecessary in Canada, a country proud of its social system recognized as a Cultural Mosaic.

This discriminatory act is painful and humiliating not only for the current generation of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Canada, survivors of aggression and genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also especially for young Canadian Bosnians and Herzegovinians, born as Canadian citizens.

The response from the Ministry of Defence of Great Britain states, among other things: "The names of the targets you refer to in your letter are commercially available products for which the catalog names are a matter for the company that produces them. You will, however, be pleased to know that the British Army uses non-specific geopolitical scenarios and no assumptions are made between catalog names and the geography of Great Britain's operational activities. The target names in the catalog you refer to in your letter will therefore not be used as part of the training undertaken by British troops in Canada.”

In his response, Paul Dewar, Member of the Canadian Parliament and NDP Critic for Foreign Affairs, states, among other things: "I share your disappointment regarding the Canadian Government's decision to purchase military targets with the ethnic name Bosnian Man. I call on the Canadian Government to first apologize for the selection of these targets, and then to prevent the purchase of such targets in the future. Military targets with ethnic or national names are not in line with Canada's proud tradition of multiculturalism and should never be used on Canadian soil.”

According to information received by IGK and the Canadian branch of KBSA from the Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Ottawa, through which our letter was delivered to the competent state authorities of Canada, the Government of Canada has responded positively to our requests in the letter, expressed regret for the target name that humiliated a segment of Canadian citizens – primarily Canadian Bosniaks – and apologized to the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Canada for the humiliating naming of military targets.

 Although citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina living in Canada, especially Bosniaks, are still humiliated by the aforementioned, inhuman decision on target names, we welcome the decisions of the governments of Canada and Great Britain not to use the humiliating and discriminatory target name "Bosnian Man" in their training in Canada. At the same time, we call on Canada and Great Britain, as members of the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council, to be even more active in ensuring that the truth about the greatest crimes after the Holocaust in Europe, the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is known and that justice for the victims of these terrible crimes is served.

In this regard, we welcome the draft resolution on declaring July 11th as the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Srebrenica Genocide, which Great Britain has prepared and submitted to the UN General Assembly for adoption. We call on the Government of Canada to support this resolution. The truth about the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina and justice for the victims of that crime are the most important conditions for reconciliation and future coexistence. Unfortunately, twenty years after the genocide in Srebrenica, the world has still not learned the lessons and messages from that crime.

Finally, we thank the academic, political, and other public figures who have supported our action in writing, without whom this action would not have succeeded. We especially thank the International Expert Team of the Institute for Genocide Research Canada for their important role in this action, the statement reads.