EU working to amend genocide denial law that is blamed for Bosnia crisis - The Guardian

Senior EU officials are working behind the scenes to “correct” a new law in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) that criminalises denial of the massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, after privately concluding it risks reigniting fresh regional conflict.

Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of the tripartite BiH leadership, has been accused in recent months of seeking to break up the country by withdrawing its Serbian part from state-level institutions.

He has claimed there is an imbalance of power and that when Valentin Inzko, the outgoing head of Bosnia’s office of the high representative, outlawed genocide denial this summer, it was undemocratic and symptomatic of the problem.

Dodik’s moves to take back powers have been widely condemned by the international community, which accuses him of leading the region to war, but leaked minutes reveal that the European commissioner for enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, has concluded that Inzko’s law is responsible for the current crisis.

During a meeting with EU delegation to Bosnia, Várhelyi – who is responsible for strengthening the bloc’s relations with BiH – gave his “frank assessment” that Inzko “was to blame for the current political crisis” in the country and the “delegitimisation” of the office of the high representative.

“While the Inzko amendments could not be disputed from the point of view of the law’s substance, the fact that it was imposed on the last day of the HR Inzko’s mandate had been problematic,” the minutes report Várhelyi as saying at the meeting on 25 November.

“Especially because it was an important decision, it should have been based on thorough debate having everyone on board. The question was now how to correct this.”

Várhelyi, a Hungarian close to his country’s rightwing prime minister Viktor Orbán, told his fellow EU officials that the Bosnian Muslim leadership had signalled willingness to resolve this issue through the adoption of a new law that could bring Dodik and the Serbian Republika Srpska entity back into the fold.

The Dayton peace accord of 1994 ended a civil war that cost about 100,000 lives after the breakup of Yugoslavia, including that of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys killed in and around the town of Srebrenica.

The agreement established a new constitution for BiH, made up of two entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, consisting predominantly of Bosnian Muslims and Croats, and Republika Srpska. Bosnia’s three-member presidency is held by representatives of those three main ethnic groups.

The so-called Bonn powers of 1997 also grant substantial lawmaking powers to the office of the high representative in charge of implementing the deal. It has the authority to impose decisions or dismiss officials who undermine the postwar ethnic balance and reconciliation efforts.

Inzko, an Austrian diplomat, made genocide denial punishable by up to five years in prison in July. He cited a refusal by the Bosnian Serb assembly to withdraw decorations awarded to three convicted war criminals as part of his reasoning.

The minutes reveal that Várhelyi said he believed there was a way out of the current crisis and that he had sanctioned a special sitting of Republika Srpska’s assembly on 10 December where members backed a resolution supporting the taking back of powers.

His condition, however, was that the legislation required to take back powers from the state in the fields of tax administration, the judiciary, intelligence and even the national army, in order to create a Serb force, should be postponed for six months to allow time for negotiation.

Várhelyi said that dealing with the genocide law was vital in order to get Dodik to recognise Inzko’s successor, Christian Schmidt of Germany, who has said the region faces its biggest crisis in a quarter of a century.

A European Commission spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

An erosion of democratic norms. An escalating climate emergency. Corrosive racial inequality. A crackdown on the right to vote. Rampant pay inequality. America is in the fight of its life. We’re raising $1.25m to fund our reporting in 2022. If you can, please make a year-end gift today.

For 10 years, the Guardian US has brought an international lens with a focus on justice to its coverage of America. Globally, more than 1.5 million readers, from 180 countries, have recently taken the step to support the Guardian financially – keeping us open to all, and fiercely independent. We couldn’t do this without readers like you.

With no shareholders or billionaire owner, we can set our own agenda and provide trustworthy journalism that’s free from commercial and political influence, offering a counterweight to the spread of misinformation. When it’s never mattered more, we can investigate and challenge without fear or favour. It is reader support that makes our high-impact journalism possible and gives us the emotional support and motor energy to keep doing journalism that matters.

Unlike many others, Guardian journalism is available for everyone to read, regardless of what they can afford to pay. We do this because we believe in information equality. Greater numbers of people can keep track of global events, understand their impact on people and communities, and become inspired to take meaningful action.

We aim to offer readers a comprehensive, international perspective on critical events shaping our world. We are committed to upholding our reputation for urgent, powerful reporting on the climate emergency, and made the decision to reject advertising from fossil fuel companies, divest from the oil and gas industries, and set a course to achieve net zero emissions by 2030.

Every contribution, however big or small, powers our journalism and sustains our future. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/22/eu-working-to-amend-law-on-srebrenica-genocide-denial-to-blame-for-bosnia-crisis

Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.