Salkić: It is a moral and civilizational obligation to remove the consequences of genocide

(Patria) - Ramiz Salkić, Vice-President of the BiH entity RS, said today that no one has an obligation, after proven and adjudicated court facts, to remove responsibility from any individual, group or institution for what has been committed, proven and adjudicated, unless they themselves wish to do so.

- Those who consider those convicted of genocide as heroes and creators of this entity, who seek to achieve the war goal of an ethnically pure Serbian space through systemic discrimination of genocide victims, are offering us today to equate truth and falsehood.

If an unjust solution had to be accepted in Dayton under the pressure of continuing the war for the sake of establishing peace, today, 27 years later, we have no right to such an approach. Today, when we are more aware than ever of the glorification of an ideology based on January 9, 1992, we should be aware of the long-term consequences of decisions that are not based on judicially proven and established facts about the committed genocide and the truth that we felt on our own skin and still feel today.

The crime of genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been established by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. It has been clearly established who the perpetrators are and who the victims of genocide are. The crime of genocide constitutes a violation of peremptory norms of international law, as it represents a violation of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide - said Salkić.

He added that the UN General Assembly Resolution on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, adopted at the 56th session of the UN General Assembly in 2002, states in Article 41, paragraph 2: "No State shall recognize as lawful a situation created by a serious breach of a peremptory norm of general international law, nor render aid or assistance in maintaining such a situation."

Bearing in mind the judgments and provisions of the aforementioned Convention and the UN General Assembly Resolution, the obligation of all of us is to consistently, persistently advocate for and seek the elimination of the consequences of genocide as a civilizational obligation of those who did not, but could have, prevented the genocide against Bosniaks.

No one has an obligation, after proven and adjudicated court facts, to remove responsibility from any individual, group or institution for what has been committed, proven and adjudicated, unless they themselves wish to do so.

Especially due to the fact that these institutions, through the educational process, systematically glorify convicted war criminals for genocide, award them the highest entity recognitions, deny court judgments with proven and adjudicated facts about the committed genocide, and in these 27 years of peace have not shown readiness to lead their people on the path of catharsis and confronting the past.

For the sake of truth, justice, court judgments, for the sake of genocide victims, for the sake of future generations who may feel the consequences of our decisions, we should by no means agree to compromises between truth and falsehood, justice and injustice - said Salkić.