New request for January 9th to be declared a day of mourning in BiH

(Patria) - The Institute for Research of Genocide Canada (IGK) has once again submitted a proposal to all levels of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina to declare January 9th a day of mourning. This is the third consecutive year that IGK has insisted on this initiative, pointing to the continuous anti-constitutional, anti-Bosnian, and anti-state actions of the authorities of the Republika Srpska entity.

In the explanation of the proposal, IGK states that January 9th is a symbol of the policy that resulted in genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and mass violations of international humanitarian law. As emphasized, the commemoration of this date represents a direct insult to the victims, the international order, and the verdicts of international courts.

According to the verdicts of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (MICT), two joint criminal enterprises existed in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the aim of creating ethnically pure territories and destroying the internationally recognized state of BiH. The realization of these plans began precisely on January 9, 1992, with the proclamation of the so-called “state of the Serb people,” which was a prelude to war and crimes unprecedented in Europe after World War II.

IGK reminds that key political and military actors of that period, including Radovan Karadžić, Ratko Mladić, Momčilo Krajišnik, Biljana Plavšić, and others, have been finally convicted for grave violations of international law and participation in a joint criminal enterprise. For genocide and other crimes in Srebrenica, sentences totaling over 550 years in prison have been handed down so far.

The proposal also states that all citizens of BiH became victims of such a policy on January 9, 1992, regardless of their ethnic or other affiliation, and that this date symbolizes the darkest memories of the war victims.

IGK reminds that the Government of Canada has repeatedly condemned the commemoration of January 9th and called for the implementation of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH, which determined that the Law on Holidays of RS is unconstitutional and contrary to international conventions on the prohibition of discrimination.

By declaring January 9th a day of mourning, as IGK points out, Bosnia and Herzegovina would pay tribute to the victims of crimes, but also send a clear message that it will not tolerate historical revisionism, glorification of war criminals, or denial of genocide and court verdicts.