OMM Redaksiyası
Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Denis Becirovic warned the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that the international community had failed to respond adequately to what he described as genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Addressing world leaders in New York during the 81st session of the General Assembly, Becirovic said nations could not remain passive in the face of widespread injustice, drawing parallels between current conflicts and the atrocities suffered by Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1990s, according to the source report.
Warnings over a global crisis
Becirovic said the spread of authoritarian populism, the war in Ukraine, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, regional conflicts in the Gulf and the catastrophic situation in Sudan had plunged humanity into a profound crisis marked by fear and instability.
He recalled that Bosnia and Herzegovina endured widespread aggression, crimes against humanity and genocide against Bosniaks between 1992 and 1995. The Bosnian leader said the highest international judicial bodies had formally established that genocide occurred on Bosnian territory, making the country the only one in Europe to experience genocide after World War II.
Call to oppose war-crimes glorification
Addressing historical accountability, Becirovic said convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic, who was known as the “Butcher of Bosnia”, should be regarded as a perpetrator rather than a hero. He said institutional efforts to glorify such figures were unacceptable and contrary to civilisation.
Mladic was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 2017 for genocide and war crimes. He served his sentence in The Hague until his death in August this year.
Becirovic called on the international community to take concrete measures against those who systematically honour convicted war criminals at official levels.
