Letter to the UN, NATO, and EU from genocide victims: Stop Milorad Dodik's warmongering policy

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The Association of Victims and Witnesses of Genocide and the Movement Mothers of the Enclaves of Srebrenica and Žepa have sent a letter to the heads of state of the UN Security Council member states, the UN Secretary-General, the NATO Secretary-General, and the highest bodies and individuals of the EU, demanding that Milorad Dodik's warmongering policy be stopped.

"We have appealed and called on Milorad Dodik, member of the Presidency of BiH and president of SNSD, and Nedeljko Čubrilović, president of the National Assembly of RS, twice so far to stop creating conditions for provoking conflict in BiH. Milorad Dodik has not only not stopped, but has currently transferred the decision to provoke conflict to the National Assembly of Republika Srpska. Although in August and October 2021, in cooperation with the UN, we sent two reports to the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Nderitu, as well as to Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), due to endangering peace in BiH and the region and violating the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, we believe that Milorad Dodik will not stop, and therefore we are sending this letter to the heads of state of the UN Security Council member states, the UN Secretary-General, the NATO Secretary-General, and the highest bodies and individuals of the EU.

We ask you to respect the UN and international conventions on human rights and freedoms, the judgments of two UN courts - the ICJ and ICTY/MICT, for the establishment of which all UN Security Council members voted, and especially the reasons and goals of the aforementioned courts, due to which you unanimously decided to establish the ICTY - the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The task of the court was and remains, among other things, the prevention and establishment of peace in the former Yugoslavia. The legacy and judgments of these courts oblige us all. We, the victims of genocide, have never resorted to revenge and revanchism; we have provided and continue to provide support to the ICTY/MICT with our testimony and cooperation, but by respecting the legacy of these courts, we are fulfilling your set goals. Therefore, we also ask you to respect your decisions and the legacy of the two UN courts and stop Milorad Dodik and Nedeljko Čubrilović. The experience of war and crime is recorded in international judgments and obliges us all, just as it obliges Milorad Dodik and Nedeljko Čubrilović, who have presented the National Assembly of RS with the choice of either war or nothing.

Attached to this letter are parts of the ICTY/MICT judgments that clearly show how Radovan Karadžić, the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, and Momčilo Krajišnik, the speaker of the assembly, convicted war criminals, used the assembly to initiate a joint criminal enterprise (JCE) for which they were convicted before the ICTY/MICT, about which we have informed Milorad Dodik, Nedeljko Čubrilović, and their followers (parts of the judgments are attached).

The role of Slobodan Milošević, the president of Serbia, in the late nineties was crucial, and the role of the current president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, is crucial now.

We ask you to prevent conflict and possible crime, because precisely the judgments and your activity in the nineties of the last century to establish the ICTY and support its work for almost 30 years is proof that justice is slow and achievable and a hope that war and crime will never happen again. Will you allow conflict and crime to happen again and for international courts to work for another 30 years? That is not in the interest of anyone except those who are followers of war criminals and policies that have been judged by two courts, the ICJ and ICTY. We especially expect the support of the President of the Russian Federation, a state that has supported the establishment of the ICTY/MICT and its work from the beginning, especially since Milorad Dodik invokes the support of the President of the Russian Federation in provoking conflict and threatens with Russian support. We still do not and do not want to believe that the President of the Russian Federation would support any crime, especially by those who follow the policies of convicted war criminals," the letter states.