The Srebrenica Memorial Center recently held a presentation meeting in Sarajevo to present a legal analysis and reporting guidelines for the crime of genocide denial. The aim was to help overcome legal, academic, and institutional challenges to holding genocide deniers accountable.
The meeting was held in Sarajevo due to security threats that have forced the Memorial Center to temporarily suspend their operations in Potočari.
Emir Suljagić, the director of the Srebrenica Memorial Center, said that five years ago, they began publishing annual reports to address genocide denial as a process, phenomenon, policy, and ultimately, a potential criminal act. He added that, in a way, their efforts were bolstered by the amendments to the criminal code of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in 2021 that criminalized denial.
“We are advocating for a system in which we can file a criminal complaint for genocide denial with the expectation that this complaint will have the greatest chance of being accepted. This is just groping around in the dark. Are we groping because we don’t know how to file a complaint—which I doubt—or because of some structural reasons that we can discuss, or because individual prosecutors or the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH do not have the courage or integrity to prosecute such cases? That’s up for discussion,” said Suljagić.
He expressed regret that, for security reasons, it was impossible to have this discussion at the Memorial Center, adding:
“It is unacceptable that we don’t know which laws apply to us, what legal framework applies to the Memorial Center. It is equally unacceptable to ask us to live under the rule of a regime that describes the call to prayer as ‘wailing,’ and accuses us of burying animal bones in the cemetery in Potočari.”
Julian Reilly, the UK Ambassador to BiH, emphasized the importance the Srebrenica Memorial Center’s work, especially during this political crisis. “I am aware of the concerns these days. We are facing complex times and a crisis that requires a response from institutions. I believe that the this country’s institutions, with the support of friends from the international community with a united position, will find a way out of the crisis and turn their focus toward working for the benefit of all citizens,” said Ambassador Reilly.
He emphasized that the denial of genocide and war crimes has incalculable consequences for both survivors and the generations to come. Genocide denial, he noted, exacerbates painful wounds and prevents society from accepting the past and taking steps towards building the future.
Fewer Genocide Deniers
Edin Ikanović from the Srebrenica Memorial Center explained that over the past five years they have been monitoring genocide denial in the media and recording this data in annual reports. However, social media and television, where genocide is also denied, were not included.
Ikanović emphasized that before the legal amendments criminalizing the denial of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, more instances of genocide denial, as well as actors engaged in denial, were recorded.
“The number of actors has decreased, but the biggest deniers, who have not been indicted, remain,” said Ikanović.
University of Vitez Professor Goran Šimić said that in BiH, we are seeing denial not only of genocide but also of adjudicated war crimes. He stated that around 800 war crimes cases have been completed in the country, resulting in over 1,200 prosecutions.
“The work of the Srebrenica Memorial Center is of critical value,” Šimić emphasized, adding that the experiences of post-conflict societies show that only on the basis truth—that is, established facts—can a society be built.
Šimić explained that the crucial problem in BiH is that society hasn’t matured to the point of being able to accept judicial verdicts—to incorporate the facts of the massacres, burnings, mutilations, abuses, killings, exhumation of corpses, etc., into the social context, the social space.
Šimić expressed hope that there will be reports on the denial of all war crimes in the future.
Muamer Džananović, the director of the Institute for the Research of Crimes against Humanity and International Law and an editor of the 2023 Srebrenica Genocide Denial Report, also emphasized the importance of the Memorial Center’s work.
“The fact is that the genocidal project has not stopped and has not been stopped. The denial of the genocide against Bosniaks committed in July 1995 was orchestrated at the highest political level. It is also a fact that this last phase, which is also being orchestrated at the political level, is still ongoing,” Džananović said.
Lawyer Senad Pećanin, who has been involved in journalism and editing for many years, expressed his admiration for the work of the Memorial Center team led by Director Suljagić.
“The key issue that I want to point out is that the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, headed by Kajganić, is violating the law, violating its legal obligations, because it is not applying the Criminal Code of BiH, especially the part that refers to the prohibition of genocide denial and prescribed sanctions for all those who engage in this,” said Pećanin.
Pećanin noted that we have witnessed dozens of criminal complaints filed by individuals and organizations. In light of this, he says it is a travesty that the BiH Prosecutor’s Office has not processed a single complaint—neither rejecting these complaints nor opening investigations that could lead to indictments. Pećanin added that the failure of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of BiH—an entity crucial for ensuring the functioning of the judiciary—to respond to this fact is deeply troubling.
Interpretation of Legal Provisions
Professor Almir Maljević, a criminal law expert from the University of Sarajevo, analyzed the legal provisions governing genocide denial, including prescribed sentencing as well as detailed explanations of the offense and how it can be proven, citing German legal precedent.
Maljević stated that problems have arisen related to several issues, including who can be considered a perpetrator of denial and the meaning of the qualification of “public” genocide denial. Additionally, debates continue as to whether it is necessary to prove the distinct, concrete consequences of denial as a criminal act, and whether the potential of denial to incite violence and hatred must be substantiated.
“These are all very specific questions that we have tried to answer through the prism of the existing precedent developed in other countries, primarily Germany, and by analyzing Germany’s long-standing judicial practice, which has already offered answers to some of these questions,” said Maljević.
The open consultations were attended by members of the Movement of Mothers of the Srebrenica and Žepa Enclaves as well as representatives of the academic community, public institutions, non-governmental organizations, and the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
