The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau
Prime Minister of Canada
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A2
The Honourable Chrystia Freeland
Minister of Foreign Affairs
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6
April 11, 2019.
Subject: Genocide Survivor Organisations: We completely support the Petition e-1837 (Crimes Against Humanity)
Dear Prime Minister Trudeau,
Dear Minister Freeland,
On March 20, 2019 the Appeals Chamber of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals issued a final verdict in the case of Radovan Karadzic for genocide in Srebrenica against its non-Serb population. He was also found guilty of five counts of crimes against humanity and four of war crimes, including taking UN peacekeepers hostage, murder, and the deportation of civilians. In 2016, the International Criminal Tribunal had sentenced Karadzic to 40 years in prison, and two weeks ago, the sentence for genocide was increased from 40 years, to life imprisonment. While the verdict will not erase our pain or bring back our loved ones, this was an important day for international justice, and as the victims and survivors of Karadzic’s bloody campaign, we believe that this sent a message to those who commit crimes against humanity that they will have to answer for those crimes before a court of law.
The genocidal campaign that was carried out by Karadzic and others left over 100,000 dead, over 2 million displaced. Karadzic was sentenced for the most severe criminal offense the Tribunal has encountered and the ICTY concluded that those crimes were unprecedented by proportion and brutality. Persistent violence against civilians and prisoners was designated to eliminate Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) and Croats (Bosnian Catholics) from almost half of BiH’s territory, and that goal was achieved by horrid methods: at least 57,300 innocent civilians detained in concentration camps; over 20,000 predominantly Bosniak women and girls victims of sexual violence, over 11,541 civilians killed during the siege of Sarajevo, including 1,601 children, and over 8,000 predominantly Bosniak men and boys killed in Srebrenica in just a matter of days, as well as the destruction of thousands of Islamic mosques and Catholic churches throughout BiH.
The gravity of the crimes that Karadzic committed rests on millions of pages of testimonies, documents, court rulings and scientific evidence. With that said, BiH’s smaller entity Republika Srpska (RS) and certain members of the political establishment of neighboring Serbia are not only unwilling to accept the findings and verdicts of the ICTY, they continue to deny genocide, glorify war criminals and pour money into efforts that directly undermine and distort historical facts. These actions neither help the victims feel safe, nor do they do anything to move BiH forward and towards reconciliation among BiH’s various ethnic groups.
Since the end of the war in BiH, government authorities of RS awarded Karadzic, as well as other convicted war criminals, with a medal for "extraordinary merit in creation and affirmation of Republika Srpska." In the wake of the 2016 genocide ruling for Karadzic, Milorad Dodik - the current member of the BiH tripartite Presidency who was then President of Republika Srpska opened a government funded student dormitory named after Radovan Karadzic, sending a message to students and young people of BiH that Karadzic should serve as a role model, rather than a lesson.
Given your longstanding support of BiH’s Euro-Atlantic integration and the rule of law, we would be grateful if you would stand with us once more and condemn such actions by BiH political elites, and the political elites of Serbia such as Prime Minister Ana Brnabic who on November 15, 2018 in an interview with Deutsche Welle news stated that genocide did not happen in Srebrenica because “genocide is when you are ... killing the entire population, the women, children and this was not that case.”
Your continued support would mean a great deal to all victims and survivors of Karadzic’s brutal campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing and would showcase to us your enduring commitment to peace and justice in BiH.
It is very important that the Government of Canada accepts requests from the e-1837 petition because we are in the last phase of genocide - the denial of genocide; which is the final and last stage of its complete execution. In fact, we are entering the celebration of the genocide by ones who committed it.
With sincere gratitude
Association Movement of Mothers of Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves
Association of Victims and Witnesses of Genocide
Association of Camp of Inmates of BiH
Association of Camp of Inmates Prijedor 92
Association Woman Victim of War
Podrinje Women Association
Association of the Parents of the Murder Children in the Besieged Sarajevo 1992 - 1995
Association of Killed, Captured and Missing Pearson "Vrbanja" Kotor - Varos
Association of Missing Pearson of the Vogosca Municipality
Association of Missing Pearson of the Ilijas Municipality
Association of Killed, Captured and Missing Pearson of the Zvornik Municipality
Association Women of Srebrenica
The Institute for Research of Genocide Canada