Vijesti

Letter from the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada

12. 26. 2022.
Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA)
Telephone: (416) 638-1991
Email: info@cija.ca  
Website: www.cija.ca
Chair: Gail Adelson-Marcovitz


Dear Gail Adelson-Marcovitz,

We are writing to you because of the alarming trends of normalization of Antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of racism globally and fascistoid tendencies that are materializing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country that suffered two genocides within the last eighty years. Normalization of racism, legalization of genocide and celebration of fascism is ultimately going to lead to a next genocide. One of the genocide indicators is genocide denial, glorifying perpetrators of genocide is genocide denial. Listening to fascist music that glorifies genocide by any one person is despicable and calls for condemnation. When the same is done by the High Representative (OHR), whose job is to oversee the civilian implementation of the peace agreement that stopped the Bosnian Genocide, then it represents a serious indicator for increased possibility of genocide re-occurrence. We need your help in raising awareness about the importance of genocide prevention globally and in Bosnia Herzegovina specifically.

On the 1st of August 2021, Mr. Schmidt officially became the new High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prior to this assuming this function, a position that requires considerable understanding of different religions and cultures, he served as the German Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture. While in this position Mr. Schmidt was ridiculed by German media and was met with a wave of mockery for his 'compulsatory pork law' on social media. Christian Schmidt was publicly opposed to kosher and halal meals being offered in schools and kindergartens in Germany. He said:
"The compromise cannot be that everyone only eats lettuce leaves."
Apparently, Mr Schmidt fears that accommodating nutritional needs of other religious groups is going to lead to impoverishment, so that everybody will have only lettuce left to eat. Therefore, he tried to pass a law making pork meat obligatory on children's menus. Mr. Schmidt is a CSU politician guided by the notion of the Leitkultur:
"Leitkultur is the opposite of multiculturalism and arbitrariness."
As in Germany, Mr. Schmidt continued to fill news headlines in Bosnia as well, with the difference that genocide survivors were not laughing as the Germans were, but were deeply disturbed and appalled. In the month of remembrance for the victims of the Genocide in Srebrenica (July 2022,), just six days after the Srebrenica Memorial Day, information about the apartheid election law was leaked to the Bosnian media. According to the leak, the votes of Bosniaks were intended to be worth less than the votes of Serbs or Croats.
This arbitrary decision came as a shock and profound insult, because Bosniaks were in a state of deep grievance for their dead, victims of a live tv coverage genocide. Bosniaks felt that they were considered lesser than human beings and murdered for it. Furthermore, Bosniaks felt that the International Community considered them lesser human beings by not bothering to comply with its legal obligation to protect them in the formally declared UN-protected 'safe area' in Srebrenica.
After all of this, Mr. Schmidt was planning to legally codify that their votes are worth less in the territory of Europe’s only official genocide since 1945.
This leak raised alarms that history is repeating and led to thousands protesting the announced election law changes in front of OHR on 25th July 2022, demanding that OHR stop imposing further divisions in a fragile society.

Two days after the protest, Mr. Schmidt had a meeting regarding the announced election law changes with Bosnian politicians where he was screaming at Bosnian politicians and pounding at the table during the meeting, misleading them and Bosnian civil society about the nature of the changes.
Later in august he was asked about the announced election law changes by Bosnian journalists in the city of Gorazde. Christian Schmidt did not answer the question, but yet again was screaming.
This time he was screaming at the Bosnian journalists: 'Schmidt angry about politicians: Complete rubbish!'
Ultimately, Mr. Schmidt made the scandalous change of election law on the election day eve.
His action was seen by many prominent figures as a racist introduction of apartheid, because the votes of Bosniaks were devalued, and the votes of Bosnian Serbs and Croats were overvalued, ignoring rights of Jews, Roma, and others, thus rewarding genocide.
Presently, citizens in Bosnia that do not belong to the three main ethnic groups: Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats, can not be elected to many political positions: e.g, Jews or Roma can not be presidents or members of parliament. Mr Finci and Mr Sejdic sued the Bosnian government for this discrimination and won on December 22, 2009. The European Court of Human Rights issued its judgment in the Case of Sejdi? and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina and found that some provisions of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are discriminatory and in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Mr. Schmidt ignored this judgment and produced a law that is codifying apartheid, a law that rewards both genocides that have befallen Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last 80 years - the Holocaust and the Bosnian Genocide, a law that is a school book example of multifaceted nature of racism: antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism against Roma. It is the law that supports the Croat party (HDZ) whose officials of quasi-state Herceg-Bosna were convicted of Joint Criminal Enterprise for the
"objective of removing the Muslim population from the territories on which the Bosnian Croat leadership, acting in concert with the leadership of Croatia, wanted to establish Croat domination".
Presently, under HDZ control anti-fascist cemeteries are demolished and the perpetrators are never found, and the streets as of December 2022 are still named after Croatian fascists from WW2. One prominent example is the Street Mile Budak in Mostar. Mile Budak was an Ustasa and stated that the goal of the Ustase regime was to “kill a third, expel a third, and convert a third” of the Serbian population, and he introduced the anti-Semitic measures in the NDH as of April, 1941.
It is understandable that Bosnians were outraged and wanted answers, however, there were no answers by Mr. Schmidt., neither for the Bosnian public nor for the European Parliament.
Member of the European Parliament Tineke Strik stated that High Representative Christian Schmidt has canceled his visit to the session of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament on November 30. Strik stated:
“It is extremely problematic that Mr. Schmidt has been hiding from the democratic debate on his disastrous changes to the Election Law for two months now,”.
Mr Schmidt is still ignoring the promise he gave to Mr .Dervo Sejdi? (an appellant before the European Court of Human Rights).
Dervo Sejdi? sent an open letter to the High Representative Christian Schmidt in which he reminded Mr Schmidt of his promise during their meeting in early September to organize a public debate on the subject of election law changes.
The latest streak in Mr. Schmidt's making outrageous news headlines is him supporting the Croatian football team under the banner of Herceg-Bosna (the unrecognized secessionist Croat ethno-state within Bosnia and Herzegovina declared during the war) while listening to fascist music.
According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Marko Perkovi? is a "fascist singer".
The corruption is built in the foundation of the Bosnian state by Dayton agreement, through legalizing and rewarding genocide by the sheer existence of the Serb entity RS, the entity that was found guilty of genocide in Srebrenica. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) ruled in 2004 on the Srebrenica genocide case, and in 2007 the ruling was upheld by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The Court named the Army of Bosnia Serb Entity RS a perpetrators of genocide.
This corruption manifests itself further in the existence of three presidents, each representing its own 'constituent' peoples (but excluding Jews, Roma, etc.). In this racist construct voters belonging to one ethnic group are supposed only to vote for the candidate from their own group. Mr. Schmidt confirmed this racist construct by complaining that:
“Mr. Željko Komši? is the Croatian representative in the State Presidency, but he was elected more by Bosniaks than by Croats.“ (Schmidt: Komši? was elected by Bosniaks)
Until recently hope existed that the International Community (OHR) is going to build Bosnia and Herzegovina as a country of law and order. Country in which genocide is considered a crime.
The latest actions of the High representative Schmidt, his indulgence in fascist music after passing a blatantly apartheid law, clearly show it was a twenty seven year long illusion. Hence, we can be looking forward to the implementation of obligatory pork meat law in Bosnian schools and daycares by Mr. Schmidt.
Historically, we witnessed many historical characters that at first were ridiculed but turned fatal.
This is travesty of justice towards the victims and survivors of both Holocaust and Bosnian Genocide, which threatens to turn into global nightmare by providing a precedent to be followed by other countries


On Thu, Dec 22, 2022 at 3:56 PM Esad <esad.sirbegovic@gmail.com> wrote:


We are writing to you because of the alarming trends of normalization of antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of racism globally and fascistoid tendencies that are materializing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, country that suffered two genocides within last eighty years. Normalization of racism, legalization of genocide and celebration of fascism is ultimately going to lead to a next genocide. One of the genocide indicators is genocide denial, glorifying perpetrators of genocide is genocide denial. Listening to fascist music that glorifies genocide by any one person is despicable and calls for condemnation. When the same is done by the High Representative (OHR), whose job is to oversee the civilian implementation of the peace agreement that stopped the Bosnian Genocide, then it represents a serious indicator for increased possibility of genocide re-occurrence. We need your help in raising awareness about the importance of the genocide prevention globally.

On 1st of August 2021, Mr. Schmidt officially became the new High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  Prior to this function, that requires understanding of different religions and cultures, as a German Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture, he was ridiculed by German media and was met with a wave of mockery for his 'compulsatory pork law' on social media. Christian Schmidt was against kosher and halal meals in schools and kindergartens in Germany. He said:
"The compromise cannot be that everyone only eats lettuce leaves."
Apparently, Mr Schmidt fears that accommodating nutritional needs of other religious groups is going to lead to impoverishment, so that everybody will have only lettuce left to eat. Therefore, he tried to pass a law making pork meat obligatory on children's menus. Mr. Schmidt is CSU politician guided by the notion of the Leitkultur:
"Leitkultur is the opposite of multiculturalism and arbitrariness."
As in Germany, Mr. Schmidt continued to fill news headlines in Bosnia as well, with the difference that genocide survivors were not laughing as Germans but were deeply disturbed and appalled. In the month of remembrance for the victims of the Genocide in Srebrenica (July 2022,), just six days after the Srebrenica Memorial Day, information about the apartheid election law was leaked to the Bosnian media. According to the leak, Bosniak vote was supposed to be less worth than Serb or Croat vote.
It came as a shock and profound insult, because Bosniaks were in a state of deep grievance for their dead, victims of a live tv coverage genocide. Bosniaks felt that their henchmen considered them lesser human beings and murdered them. Furthermore, Bosniaks felt that the International Community considered them lesser human beings by not bothering to comply with its legal obligation to protect them in formally declared UN-protected 'safe area' in Srebrenica. 
After all of this, Mr. Schmidt was planning to legally codify that their votes are less worth.

This leak raised alarms that history is repeating and lead to thousands protesting the announced election law changes in front of OHR on 25th July 2022, demanding from OHR not to impose further divisions in society.

Two days after the protest, Mr. Schmidt had a meeting regarding the announced election law changes with Bosnian politicians where he was screaming at Bosnian politicians and pounding at the table during that meeting, misleading them and Bosnian civil society about the nature of the changes.
Later in august he was asked about the announced election law changes by Bosnian journalists in the city of Gorazde. Christian Schmidt did not answer the question, but yet againe was screaming.
This time he was screaming at the Bosnian journalists: 'Schmidt angry about politicians: Complete rubbish!'
Ultimately, Mr. Schmidt made the scandalous change of election law on the election day eve.
His action was seen by many prominent figures as a racist introduction of apartheid, because the votes of Bosniaks were devalued, and the votes of Bosnian Serbs and Croats were overvalued, ignoring rights of Jews, Roma, and others, thus rewarding genocide.

Presently, citizens in Bosnia that do not belong to the three main ethnic groups: Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats, can not be elected to many political positions: e.g, Jews or Roma can not be presidents or members of parliament. Mr Finci and Mr Sejdic sued the Bosnian government for this discrimination and won on December 22, 2009. The European Court of Human Rights issued its judgment in the Case of Sejdi? and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina and found that some provisions of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are discriminatory and in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Mr. Schmidt ignored this judgment and produced a law that is codifying apartheid, a law that rewards both genocides that have befallen Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last 80 years - the Holocaust and the Bosnian Genocide, a law that is a school book example of multifaceted nature of racism: antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism against Roma. It is the law that supports the Croat party (HDZ) whose officials of quasi-state Herceg-Bosna were convicted of Joint Criminal Enterprise for the 
"objective of removing the Muslim population from the territories on which the Bosnian Croat leadership, acting in concert with the leadership of Croatia, wanted to establish Croat domination".
Presently, under HDZ control anti-fascist cemeteries are demolished and the perpetrators are never found, and the streets as of December 2022 are still named after Croatian fascists from the WW2. For example, the Street Mile Budak in Mostar. Mile Budak was Ustasa and stated that the goal of the Ustase regime was to “kill a third, expel a third, and convert a third” of the Serbian population and he introduced the anti-Semitic measures in NDH as of April, 1941.

It is understandable that Bosnians were outraged and wanted answers, however, there were no answers by Mr. Schmidt., neither for the Bosnian public nor for the European Parliament.
Member of the European Parliament Tineke Strik stated that High Representative Christian Schmidt has canceledhis visit to the session of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament on November 30.Strik said:
“It is extremely problematic that Mr. Schmidt has been hiding from the democratic debate on his disastrous changes to the Election Law for two months now,”.

Mr Schmidt is still ignoring the promise he gave to Mr .Dervo Sejdi? (an appellant before the European Court of Human Rights).

Dervo Sejdi? sent an open letter to the High Representative Christian Schmidt in which he reminded Mr Schmidt of his promise during their meeting in early September to organize a public debate on the subject of election law changes.

The latest streak in Mr. Schmidt's making outrageous news headlines is him supporting Croatian football team under Herceg-Bosna banner while listening to the fascist music.

According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Marko Perkovi? is a "fascist singer".

The corruption is built in the foundation of the Bosnian state by Dayton agreement through legalizing and rewarding genocide by the sheer existence of the Serb entity RS, the entity that was found guilty of genocide in Srebrenica. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) ruled 2004 the Srebrenica genocide case and in 2007 the ruling was upheld by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The Court named the Army of Bosnia Serb Entity RS a perpetrators of genocide.

This corruption manifests itself further in the existence of three presidents, each representing its own 'constituent'peoples (but excluding Jews, Roma, etc.). In this racist construct voters belonging to one ethnic group are supposed only to vote for the candidate from their own group. Mr. Schmidt confirmed this racist construct by complaining that: 
“Mr. Željko Komši? is the Croatian representative in the State Presidency, but he was elected more by Bosniaks than by Croats.“ (Schmidt: Komši? was elected by Bosniaks)
Until recently hope existed that the International Community (OHR) is going to build Bosnia and Herzegovina as a country of law and order. Country in which genocide is crime. 

The latest actions of the High representative Schmidt, him indulging in fascist music after passing apartheid law, clearly show it was a twenty seven years lasting illusion. Hence, we can be looking forward to the implementation of obligatory pork meat law in Bosnian schools and daycares by Mr. Schmidt.

Historically, we witnessed many historical characters that at first were ridiculed but turned fatal.

This is travesty of justice towards the victims and survivors of both Holocaust and Bosnian Genocide, which threatens to turn into global nightmare by providing a precedent to be followed by other countries.

Dr. Emir Ramic
Chair of the Institute for Research of Genocide Canada

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