Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights

09. 19. 2022.

Hon. Dunja Mijatovic?

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights 

 

Dear Commissioner,

 

It has been reported that the President of the Republic of Croatia, Zoran Milanovi?, has made statements denying and downplaying the Genocide in Srebrenica committed against the Bosniak population in 1995. The alleged remarks were made while attending a meeting of regional leaders, including the member of the of Bosnia and Herzegovina mr. Milorad Dodik. Mr. Dodik is a self-avowed ally of Mr. Vladimir Putin and a serial genocide denier, in addition to being the champion of Russian interference in the Western Balkans. The smaller entity, Republika Srpska's leadership, with the help and support from Serbia, perpetrated the genocide. 

 

The parroting of sentiments long espoused by Russian-backed entities seeks the political destabilization of the region and further prevents its integration into the EU and NATO. The implications of a President of a NATO and EU member state publicly expressing genocide denial and relativization in the current political climate of the Western Balkans and Europe as a whole cannot be overstated. The fact that these statements are not an isolated incident and represent a long history of such statements by the President of the Republic of Croatia, Zoran Milanovi?, is also particularly worrying during this period of instability in the wider region. 

 

We ask for your organization's position regarding these statements by the NATO member state denying and downplaying the legally recognized and adjudicated Genocide in Srebrenica.  

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Dr. Emir Rami?

Director of the Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada