Just three days after Bosnia marked the 22nd anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide, Belgrade's Court of Appeals has dismissed the indictment filed against eight Bosnian Serbs accused of killing 1,313 civilians from Srebrenica in the Kravice hangar. However, their freedom did not result from proven innocence, but from the procedural omission of the Serbian Republic's Public Prosecutor, Zagorka Dolovac.
According to Belgrade's Humanitarian Law Center, the indictment was dismissed because the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor (OWCP) did not have a prosecutor during the period which included the time when the indictment for the crimes committed in Kravica was filed.
For Kada Hotic, and other mothers from The Movement of Mothers of Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves, whose closest family members were buried in the Potocari Memorial Center, the court's decision is simply one more shameful act, confirming that Serbia officially continues to deny that the genocide occurred.
Although they became accustomed to the Serbian judiciary's tricks, and their hearts were embittered following years of pain, Kravice hangar, one of the most notorious execution sites in the Srebrenica massacre is a place of particular importance for them.
Every year, on July 13, a group of them travels there to pay tribute to the victims. For years, local villagers, Serbs, did not allow them to visit the place fearing that mourners would turn the site into a Muslim sanctuary. The situation improved over the last few years, but they still face unpleasant and hurtful scenes, which bring disrespect to the victims.
“ Locals allow their cows to eat the grass from the blood-soaked soil where more than 1,300 people died in a horrendous way", says Ms. Kada Hotic in her interview to MTV Igman. Her husband, son and two brothers were killed in Srebrenica – "What kind of people live there? How can they give that milk to their children?"
Despite the International Crime Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) confirming that genocide took place in Srebrenica, Serbian authorities refuse to accept the legal terminology.
Under EU pressure, the Serbian Assembly voted on a special amendment whose focus is preventing the denial of genocide and war crimes. However, the Amendment to the Serbian Criminal Code voted on in 2016 exclusively covers the judgments of the Permanent International Criminal Court in The Hague, established in 2002. However, it does not include ICTY judgments and the International Court of Justice, which dealt with war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.
In addition, the sarcasm and inefficiency of the amendment encourages local deniers who continue to intensify their own anti-Srebrenica campaign.
The Serbian online edition of the leading Russian news agency Sputnik sarcastically associated the Srebrenica anniversary with propaganda and political party, disrespectfully calling it Srebrenica Fest 2017.
In 2007, Milorad Dodik, then-President of Bosnia's Republika Srpska, had no problem stating that the genocide had occurred in Srebrenica. Ten years later however, he had changed his mind completely. Through a series of statements, he concluded that the idea of genocide itself is “the worst attack on Serbs in their history”.
The promotion of the book "Srebrenica, Lies and Vilification of the Serbian People" was canceled at the request of several non-governmental organizations. The author of the book, Ljiljana Bulatovic, is one of the most consistent deniers of the genocide. As a biographer of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic, Bulatovic continues to be one of the latter's most loyal sympathizers, and constantly advocates for his freedom.
Carlos Martino Branco, an ex UN-Military observer believes that “the mass graves are filled by a limited number of corpses from both sides; the consequence of a heated battle and combat, and not the result of a premeditated plan of genocide” .
It is the visible lack of European legal character in the Serbian Amendment, when say, compared with a similar law in Switzerland, which strictly bans and punishes denial of the Srebrenica Genocide. Swiss legislature is more concerned about Srebrenica than Serbs are.
Donatello Poggi, a local politician in the canton of Ticino, who wrote that Srebrenica was a “lie and propaganda” in Corriera Della Serra, in 2012, was found guilty of racial discrimination in 2016. As a result, he was given a two-year suspended prison sentence.
Gerhard Fiolka, a professor of International Criminal Law at the University of Fribourg warns that “denying genocide traumatizes the survivors for a second time’
In the meantime, the small town of Srebrenica does its best to live with the burden of the past, but is still unable to complete the reconciliation process. Disagreeing on the legal vocabulary has been a stumbling block on the road to a better life for the community.
Mothers of the Enclaves of Srebrenica and Zepa are openly critical of the town's new mayor, a Serb Mladen Grujicic. They still remember his being associated with an incident in Potocari, before he was appointed to his current position.
According to Ms. Hotic, he was drunk one late night, and in his intoxicated state went to the Potocari Memorial center with a bottle of alcohol in his hand. Upon arriving there, "he shouted among the tombstones, calling out to the dead Muslims buried there to "get up and drink with him."
No Serb officials were invited to the 22nd anniversary. The Mothers of Srebrenica believe they made a mistake when they invited Aleksandar Vucic, then-Serbian PM to come to Potocari on the genocide's 20th anniversary. The reason being is that Vucic seems to have stolen the show.
All things considered however, the most immeasurably cruel indicator of inhumanity has been the seeming lack of any sort of remorse or repentance.
Unlike the numerous, 1995 Dutch peacekeepers who turned to alcohol, suffered from depression, or in some cases, even committed suicide over their inability to help, none of Serbs accused or condemned for the Srebrenica massacre have to date shown any sign of remorse. In fact, from all outward appearances, they continue to live with a strong sense of their own heroism.