The Republika Srpska Government to Establish an Independant International Commission for Srebrenica

On 14 August, the RS National Assembly voted 70-0 to reject a 2004 report on Srebrenica that an RS government commission prepared according to the dictates of then-High Representative Paddy Ashdown. Every Serb party of both the governing coalition and the opposition voted to reject the 2004 report. The National Assembly further called for the formation of an independent international commission to prepare an objective and impartial report on the suffering of all peoples in the Srebrenica area from 1992 to 1995.

Four days after the RS National Assembly voted to reject the report of 2004, the RS Government at its session held on 18 August 2018 also determined to render void the 2004 report and the corresponding Conclusion of the Government issued in 2004 related to the report. In order to fully and impartially understand the events in the Srebrenica area in the period 1992-1995, and to strengthen trust among the peoples in BiH, and for the purpose of reconciliation and co-existence of current and future generations, the RS Government also decided that an independent international commission should be set up within 60 days for the same purpose the National Assembly identified.

The rejection of the 2004 report is not a denial that terrible crimes were committed against Bosniaks in the Srebrenica area in 1995. It is a rejection of the process under which the 2004 report was prepared and approved—and the process’s pre-ordained results, which were accepted under the duress of Ashdown’s unlawful orders. The report itself documents Ashdown’s deep involvement in the report, such as his selection of commission members and his instructions with respect to the report’s content.

The report was prepared and approved under extreme duress during a time in which Ashdown did not hesitate to impose extrajudicial punishments on government officials who failed to act according to his wishes. In 2004 alone, Ashdown summarily banned from public employment and took away other rights from 73 individuals, including high RS officials, and blocked the bank accounts of many others. RS officials responsible for the report were under a real threat of personal ruin if they failed to act as Ashdown demanded.

A report prepared and approved under such duress is meaningless. Its content is based not on independent inquiry but on Ashdown’s political directives. The report’s approval was a product of Ashdown’s will, not the will of RS citizens through their institutions and elected government.

Another reason for the National Assembly’s and Government’s rejection of the 2004 report is the report’s politically-imposed omission of any reference to the suffering of Serbs and war crimes against Serbs. The report acknowledges that the commission conducted no inquiry into the historical background of the July 10-19, 1995, crimes in the Srebrenica area. After describing some of Ashdown’s instructions to the commission, the report states, “With this, the mandate of the Commission was directed exclusively towards investigating the fate of Bosniaks in the stated period”. Although crimes committed by one side in a war are not a legal or moral defense for crimes committed by the other side, the historical fact of widespread Bosniak atrocities committed against Serbs in the Srebrenica area must not be suppressed. Bosniak forces killed and tortured numerous Serb civilians in the Srebrenica area, including a large number of the elderly, women and children. However, the 2004 report explicitly excluded these war crimes.

Excluding the war crimes committed against Serbs in the Srebrenica area implies that they never happened. The exclusion of such crimes was designed by OHR to strengthen the simplistic narrative that the Serbs were the war’s aggressors and Bosniaks its victims. This narrative, unfortunately, has been imposed by the Bosniak-controlled BiH justice system, thereby denying justice to Serb victims. Extensive reports by RS war crimes investigators regarding war crimes committed against Serbs have been shelved without action by the BiH Prosecutor’s Office. Not a single Bosniak has been convicted of crimes against humanity, and only a handful have been convicted of any type of war crime.

The commission to be established will not minimize the crimes committed against Bosniaks, but nor will it ignore crimes committed against Serbs. The RS Government hopes that this independent inquiry will help clarify the historical record with respect to Srebrenica war crimes and encourage reconciliation among BiH’s peoples. Reconciliation among the peoples of BiH requires a just accounting of criminal conduct during the war. The action of the RS National Assembly and Government should be welcomed as a means of promoting reconciliation, a prerequisite of which is to arrive at objective and substantiated truth, to provide fuller understanding of the terrible events of the 1990s conflict.