Schwarz-Schilling calls on Inzko to impose a law banning genocide denial

(Patria) - This March, we Europeans were reminded of the atrocities of the last century by two events: the verdict against Radovan Karadžić and the appearance of Chetniks in Višegrad, writes Christian Schwarz-Schilling in an opinion piece for DW .

"The final verdict of the Hague Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia declared the former leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadžić, finally guilty of crimes against humanity in Bosnia and Herzegovina and especially of genocide in Srebrenica. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. It is hard to imagine a different sentence for this gravity of crime, the planned killing of thousands of innocent people. It is all the more astonishing that politicians who today bear responsibility for BiH criticize this verdict of the high court in The Hague and trivialize or even completely deny war crimes and human rights violations that rank among the worst crimes in Europe after the Second World War," writes Schwarz-Schilling.

As he says, claiming that the genocide did not happen is precisely what the current President of BiH, Milorad Dodik, a representative of the Republika Srpska and the Serbian 'constituent people' who publicly stated in 2008 that 'there was genocide in Srebrenica,' is doing today.

"With today's lies, Dodik takes on a heavy burden of guilt. In Germany, after the Second World War, there was a similar situation with the prosecution of Holocaust crimes before the war crimes tribunal in Nuremberg: the perpetrators were indeed sentenced to death or very long prison terms. But despite this, there were citizens and politicians who simply denied the killing in concentration camps like Auschwitz. In response, the German Bundestag, the highest parliament of the Federal Republic, passed a law making Holocaust denial punishable. Why doesn't the same happen in BiH? If there are politicians who, with their votes in parliament, prevent such a law, then it is the task of the High Representative overseeing the peace process in BiH to impose such a law himself in order to protect the rule of law," comments the former High Representative.

He also touched on the first half of March when the "incredible appearance of Serbian Chetniks in Višegrad on the Drina occurred. Several hundred Chetniks came in black uniforms and howled their war songs like 'there will be hell again and the bloody Drina, here come the Chetniks from the Serbian mountains'."

"In 1943, the Chetniks right here in this region of the Drina valley committed the gravest crimes together with the German Wehrmacht, the Nazis. Their supreme commander Draža Mihailović led this terrorist band and killed thousands of people. He was sentenced to death in 1946 before a court in Belgrade. In his honor, this provocative performance is now being held in March 2019! As the German newspaper 'taz' correctly writes: 'Fifty years later, in 1993, events repeated themselves: Serbian extremists attacked the towns of Foča and Višegrad and killed thousands of Bosniaks, took surviving women to rape camps – in a hotel three kilometers from Višegrad – and threw bound living men into the Drina,'" writes Schwarz-Schilling.

At that time, it is estimated that around 3,000 people were sent to their deaths. Using those events today for celebration surpasses the imagination of any democrat, claims Schwarz-Schilling.

"It is unimaginable that in Germany today, several hundred former SS members would gather in their uniforms, sing songs to Hitler and celebrate in honor of Mr. Himmler. As is heard, the Bosnian State Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation. That investigation must quickly lead to results and appropriate court proceedings. I fear that BiH, if it wants to protect democracy, must quickly pass the missing laws in parliament. Not only must the denial of the genocide in Srebrenica be punishable, but also membership or obvious cooperation with fascist associations. And if such a legislative initiative again encounters opposition from one of the 'constituent peoples,' the High Representative must intervene. Nothing in BiH is more important than democracy," writes, among other things, the former head of the OHR.