"Serbian-Russian friendship" undermines the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina

While the survivors of the crimes in Kalinovik are not allowed to place a memorial plaque on the former site of the Barutni Magacin concentration camp (located in the Republika Srpska entity), Bosnian Serb nationalists have erected a plaque in Vidrići to commemorate the Serbian and Russian soldiers who fought and killed in the so-called "defensive-patriotic war" from 1992 to 1995.

The plaque in Vidrići is attached to a tall Russian Orthodox cross, which is located next to a church built in the Russian style.

The president of the committee for the construction of the church in Vidrići, Milan Jolović, pointed out that the cross and the church are dedicated to Serbian-Russian friendship, which was strengthened thThe far reaches of the "Russian world"

The message on the plaque is a form of genocide denial because it glorifies war crimes committed by Bosnian Serb and Russian forces as a "patriotic" endeavor. The text on the plaque ominously claims that the "blood-soaked land" is nothing less than "vowed for the sons to defend it through stormy times". This plaque on the Russian Orthodox cross is a clear encouragement to the holy obligation to repeat the crime.

The Russian Orthodox cross and the Russian-style church in Vidrići, along with the glorification of the "defensive-patriotic" war fought with Russian volunteers, are a hint of the geographical and mythical terrain in the far reaches of the so-called "Russian world".

Vladimir Putin's "foreign policy" implies a vision of "a power that brings together the Russian people and other peoples belonging to the cultural and civilizational community of the Russian world." This "vision" includes the defense of the Russian Orthodox Church and "ensuring the unity of Orthodoxy"; "preservation of age-old civilizational and spiritual ties between the people of Russia" and brotherly peoples rough two world wars and the last so-called "patriotic war".

The plaque placed on the Russian cross in Vidrići can be seen as the point where Putin's "Russian world" overlaps with the "Serbian world", where both worlds, inhabited by "brotherly peoples", seek to identify and persecute the hated "other".

In Vidrići, the hated second was a Bosniak. Such hatred is regularly fueled by politicians in the Republika Srpska. The representatives of Republika Srpska in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH sent a recent letter to the US Senate and Congress in which they state that "BiH has long been a paradise for radical Islamists and that the nationalist policy of the largest Bosniak parties confirms the intention to rule BiH without Serbs and Croats." A few days earlier, Mr. Dodik claimed that those who seek a civil state are in reality working at the will of Muslims who want to dominate. In addition, he tweeted that there is no state and that "there is no statehood day. He claimed that they were "invented in the minds of Muslim politicians...".

 

Genocide denial

 

In addition to his anti-Muslim and anti-state rhetoric, Dodik confirmed the denial of genocide on the plaque in Vidrići when he recently declared that "the story about the alleged genocide and suffering of Bosniaks" is false. This is the denial of genocide and the trivialization of the suffering of the victims. He also stated that everything that happened was the result of a "civil war", which could be considered a justification for the crime. With such provocative statements, Mr. Dodik mocks the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina with impunity.

 

While memorials that glorify the perpetrators and their crimes, such as the plaque to Russian volunteers in Vidrići, the plaque to Ratko Mladić on Vraca hill, or the mural to Ratko Mladić in Kalinovik, have colonized the cultural landscape of Bosnia and Herzegovina, surviving victims of genocide and other war crimes have been prevented from erecting memorials at the places where the atrocities were judged as a war crime, such as the Barutni magacin (Kalinovik), the Partizan sports hall (Foča) and the Villa Vlas (Višegrad). Survivors were also prohibited from placing a plaque at the warehouse in Kravica, where the crimes that were part of Mladić's conviction for genocide were committed. This discriminatory ban on memorials to victims is a denial of the truth about genocide and other war crimes, and a flagrant violation of UN guidelines on the right to memorialization. OHR should support the installation of plaques and museums at these locations without delay.

The "Serbian-Russian friendship" symbolized by the Russian cross and the plaque in Vidrići implies the incitement to repeat the atrocities of the 1990s as a holy mission. Dodik's denial of genocide and other war crimes, along with his anti-state and anti-Muslim statements, undermines respect for the rule of law. These provocations undermine the possibility of a just social order and a peaceful future for the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dodik's threats of secession and his visits to Moscow are aimed at blocking Bosnia's path to the EU and NATO in the service of the Serbian and Russian world. On the occasion of BiH Statehood Day, it is imperative that the international community prioritize Bosnia's accession to the EU and NATO in order to support Bosnia as a democratic, multi-ethnic and sovereign state.

 

David Pettigrew

AL JAZEERA