Serbian Assembly Epicenter of Genocide Deniers: Another Shameful Speech!

(Patria) - A video statement by the president of the New Democratic Party of Serbia, Miloš Jovanović, from the Serbian Assembly has gone viral, attracting great attention on social media.

In his speech in the Serbian Assembly, Jovanović called for the adoption of a declaration on Srebrenica, which would confirm that genocide did not occur in Srebrenica, following the model of the declaration adopted by his party on June 9, 2024.

Jovanović emphasized that it is important for the Serbian Assembly to take a clear stance on the events in Srebrenica, as he believes that genuine reconciliation is possible only if based on, as he said, “historical truth.”

The declaration should state that no genocide was committed in Srebrenica and that all victims deserve respect. He stressed that without such a declaration, the situation would remain unresolved.

Furthermore, Jovanović announced that he would offer this declaration to other parliamentary groups, especially those considered nationally responsible, and request that it be included in the Assembly's agenda.

He stated that an attempt is being made to impose collective guilt on the Serbian people and warned of the danger of “lies about genocide,” which, in his opinion, could lead to the unitarization of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the abolition of the Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska.

For the record, in 2016, Serbia amended its Criminal Code, introducing prison sentences of five months to six years for anyone who “denies, minimizes, or justifies genocide and war crimes.”

However, these legal provisions apply to final verdicts of domestic courts and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), but not to verdicts of the International Court of Justice and the ICTY, which have also issued rulings on the genocide in Srebrenica.

Thus, those who deny the genocide confirmed by verdicts in The Hague, established for crimes committed in the territory of the former SFRY, cannot be punished.

Regarding the denial of genocide on social media, Twitter and Alphabet, the company that owns, among others, YouTube, announced back in 2021 that they would remove content denying the genocide in Srebrenica.

Earlier, YouTube commented to Radio Free Europe on certain video content denying the genocide in Srebrenica:

“As part of our established policy against hate speech, we are committed to removing content that diminishes or denies a ‘well-documented, violent event,’ including the one in Srebrenica. If content is found to violate these rules, we will remove it,” a YouTube spokesperson said at the time to Radio Free Europe.

Therefore, we call on all our readers to immediately report any content that diminishes or denies genocide and other war crimes to the administrators of that social network as soon as they notice it.

More than 8,000 mostly Bosniak men and boys were killed in Srebrenica in July 1995. This crime is the only one committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia that international and domestic courts have characterized as genocide.

More than 40,000 people were expelled, and many never returned to their pre-war homes. More than fifty people have been sentenced to over 700 years in prison for war crimes committed in Srebrenica.

Seven ICTY verdicts and 13 verdicts of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina include convictions for genocide.
Among those convicted are Radovan Karadžić, the first president of the Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska, and Ratko Mladić, the main commander of the Army of Republika Srpska.