An attempt is being made in BiH to impose a narrative in which only Bosniaks were victims of the war, while the current policy toward Serb victims has now been completely laid bare, Republika Srpska Interior Minister Željko Budimir said.
Budimir was responding to former head of the Islamic Community in BiH Mustafa Cerić, who described the international digital campaign “Discover Serb Suffering” as propaganda. The campaign was organized by the Republika Srpska Memorial Center at prominent locations in Rome.
Budimir argued that efforts to draw attention to Serb victims are often characterized in this way by Bosniak representatives.
“According to Bosniaks, it is propaganda whenever the Serb side and Serb victims are concerned. As if a Serb tear should not exist and as if a Serb mother should not be allowed to mourn those she has lost,” Budimir told reporters in Banja Luka.
He said insufficient attention is paid to the suffering of Serbs in the Podrinje region, Sarajevo and other locations, and claimed that 157,000 Serbs were ethnically cleansed from Sarajevo.
Budimir argued that Serb suffering is not acknowledged and that Bosniak politics in BiH is based on a narrative portraying Bosniaks as the only victims of a war in which, he stressed, all sides suffered losses.
He also said that figures concerning members of the Army of Republika Srpska and Serb civilians who were killed, when considered in relation to the population, demonstrate the scale of losses on the Serb side.
“Around 26,000 Republika Srpska soldiers and more than 30,000 people in total, including civilians, were killed. When we compare the number of victims with the population, this shows that the proportion of those who died on the Serb side was approximately the same. This, of course, is not accepted, and that is not good for this country,” Budimir said.
He added that Serbs did not expect anything different from the other side.
“What matters is that the gloves are off and this policy has been completely exposed, so that you can see who you are dealing with on the other side,” Budimir concluded.
Source: RTRS
