Law against holocaust denial in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Last Friday, Valentin Inzko, High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, announced a new law banning holocaust denial, denial of crimes against humanity, and the glorification of war criminals. According to the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), this is an important step with regard to reconciliation in the region. "The ongoing glorification of war criminals and the denial of their crimes are a threat to the peace process in Bosnia and Herzegovina," stated Jasna Causevic, STP expert on genocide prevention and the Responsibility to Protect. "If this overdue law is enforced consistently, it will help to prevent further hate crimes and – possibly – even avert a new war."

With the new law, Bosnia and Herzegovina is moving closer to the EU. According to a Framework Decision of the Council of the EU (November 28, 2008), the member states have to punish "…the condoning, denial or the gross trivialization of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes." Causevic emphasized that the international community, the Peace Implementation Council in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the EU will have to establish a rule of law in Bosnia. "The Public Prosecutor of Bosnia and Herzegovina must be able to actually put the law into practice in order to react to revisionism. A catastrophe has been avoided – but only for now: there is still a lot to do to ensure that the multinational, multi-religious, and multiethnic state of Bosnia will find its way back into the EU."

According to Causevic, the new law is a suitable means to put an end to Serbian nationalism, to hate speech and discrimination in connection with the ongoing denial of genocide crimes since the end of the war in Bosnia (1992-1995) – especially the genocide of Srebrenica (1995) and the human rights crimes of Prijedor, Foca, Visegrad, and other places. "This warmongering is part of everyday life – especially in the Serbian part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republika Srpska – and judgements from national and international criminal courts are often not accepted. This could potentially lead to even more violence," Causevic added.

Originally, Inzko had hoped that Bosnia's political institutions might draft new laws in this matter of their own accord, based on the assumption that the people would want to leave the fear and the hatred of the 1990s crimes behind once and for all – but it turned out that those who are spreading the lies would not stop, despite all the evidence.