SARAJEVO – The High Representative of International Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, used his special power to amend a law on Tuesday” to enable better functioning of the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Centre”.
According to a statement from the Office of the High Representative (OHR), Schmidt amended the Law on the Center for the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial and Cemetery for the Victims of the 1995 Genocide, “thereby adjusting a previous High Representative’s decision to facilitate the work of the Memorial Centre”.
According to N1, the adjustment will allow unspent funds assigned initially for burials to be used for other purposes with the prior consent of the donors.
“The High Representative took note of the limitation imposed by the previous decision on the allocation of donor funds, as well as the estimate of the Memorial Centre’s Governing Board that less than half of the currently deposited funds would be sufficient for burials and headstones”, the statement said.
“The OHR has always been especially committed to the work and legacy of the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Center. Therefore, I decided to help improve the Center’s functioning by opening the possibility for reallocating already available funds,” Schmidt said.
He stressed that the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Center is “a crucial monument for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the efforts to promote truth and reconciliation.”
On the same day, the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, again openly denied the Srebrenica genocide. Dodik commented on Schmidt’s decision which ensured access to Memorial Center for six million KM.
“There is no High Representative. He is all illegitimate and illegal. Genocide did not happen there. We all know that, but they keep trying to insist on it violently. The descendants of those who committed the most terrible crimes in the Second World War tell us something here”, Dodik said.
According to portal Klix.ba, this is not the first time that Dodik denies the genocide. However, according to the provisions of the Criminal Code, after the decision of the former High Representative Valentin Inck, denial of the crime of genocide and other crimes for which there are judgments of international courts and the Court of BiH is punishable by Law from three months to three years in prison.