Ex Presidency member dismisses war crimes allegations

NEWS 06.09.201821:10
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Police in the southern town of Trebinje submitted to Bosnia’s Prosecutor’s Office a report on crimes against humanity former Bosniak member of the tripartite Presidency, Haris Silajdzic, allegedly committed during the war, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) reported on Thursday.

Silajdzic told BIRN that the report represents a well thought out project aimed to decrease the significance of verdicts that the court handed down in the past.

‘This is the third or fourth attempt of this kind, and the final goal is to create the perception that Bosnia’s preservation is impossible,’ he said.

‘This should serve those who are advocating the redrawing of borders in the Balkans,’ he added, referring to a territorial swap that Serbia and Kosovo are discussing as a possible solution for a dispute among them and the idea that, consequently, Bosnia’s border should also be redrawn.

The allegations coming from the Trebinje police have nothing to do with the truth and with facts, he said, comparing the attempt to something that could be found in ‘Himmler’s media strategy guidebook.’

‘It’s not easy for them. One must keep up what is, in essence, a fascist project in front of the eyes of the entire world,’ he said.

Silajdzic has, as a top official of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, breached the rules of international humanitarian law, above all those within the Geneva Convention on Human Rights, in the southern municipality of Konjic during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia, the spokesperson of the Trebinje police headquarters, Jovana Cvijetic, told BIRN.

Throughout the years of the war, Silajdzic served as Bosnia’s Foreign Affairs Minister and Prime Minister.