Srebrenica genocide denial is rampant throughout the Serb-controlled jurisdictions in the Balkans. The orchestrated murder of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in July 1995 has been erased from official government documents in the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and in Serbia. It is not taught in public schools. The recent death of Ratko Mladic, one of its primary perpetrators, was honored with all but a state funeral in Belgrade, Serbia. In Montenegro, the Speaker of Parliament, Andrija Mandic, wrote a laudatory condolence note to Mladic's family. Opposition members submitted a motion for his dismissal. Though a vote was set for September 24, it could not be held for lack of a quorum.[1]
The Srebrenica Genocide Memorial Center in Potocari has been under attack by authorities in the Republika Srpska since at least last summer. With direction from the local prosecutor's office, police summoned and questioned 28 members of the Center over allegations of tax fraud. The Center's director, Emir Suljagic, denied any irregularities in the Center's operations, pointing out that the institution operates through Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) state treasury and has received positive audit opinions year after year. In late September, Suljagic went public with information he had received that the police were planning an assault on the Center, as well as arresting him. He has since said the Center was able to thwart the attack. The prosecutor's office has denied any plans to arrest him.
The government of BiH established the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial Center in 2001. It contains a cemetery and an exhibit center with offices. Suljagic assumed the directorship on October 15, 2019. He has been a member of the BiH government, an interpreter, a journalist including at the ICTY, and an author. He is also the only survivor of the Srebrenica genocide among his family. He survived because he was interpreting for internationals at the time of the mass killings.
Suljagic described the threat the Center poses to revisionist forces:
"We are a mortal threat to the Greater Serbia nationalist narrative because it is grounded in lies. There is no way to intimidate us. We follow no one in Sarajevo, nor anyone anywhere on the planet; we follow these people (the dead) resting here."
I am honored to know Emir. We both covered the trial of Slobodan Milosevic before the ICTY in The Hague. He is a courageous human being, deeply committed to international justice, truth, and compassion for those who have and are suffering at the hands of perpetrators of great evil. I now watch from afar in amazement at his relentless ability to shoulder the burden of truth for 8,000 who cannot, even though placing himself in jeopardy.
Justice- and truth-loving people must stand up against the revisionism that would bury the truth of the Srebrenica genocide and the graves that memorialize t
[1] Montenegro's Human Rights Action published a statement on September 9, calling on the government of Montenegro to "publicly and individually condemn the actions of every public official who has glorified Ratko Mladic, and cut off political support to such officials." Thirty-eight NGOs and 21 activists signed it. www.hraction.org