In Bosnia, the denial of genocide is said to be a criminal offense in future.
This is what a decree of the outgoing High Representative Valentin Inzko provides.
There is nothing to be said against good intentions.
It has been proven that genocide took place in Srebrenica in 1995, in which Serbian troops murdered more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslims.
The downsizing of this genocide by Bosnian Serb politicians is unbearable.
The only question that arises is how the decree is to be implemented. This is especially true in view of the Bosnian peculiarities with three constitutive peoples, the largest of which, the Bosniak, makes up barely 51 percent of the population. The cautious reaction of the American embassy in Sarajevo could be an indication that this question is also being asked in Washington. Inzko's decree only states that it is a “starting point” for a “concrete debate” on the “practical implementation”. The British and German representations sent messages with the same word in some cases, of course not without consulting their capitals. Washington's longtime Balkan special envoy Matthew Palmer had already said in April that from the American point of view it was "not a particularly valuable instrument".self-evident false, to be declared illegal. Whether Bosnia's genocide denial law can be enforced and whether it contributes to reconciliation or rather hardens the front is an open question.