Genocide and war crimes

Criminal ethno-clans have dominated the political scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina for three decades, and the destructive ideologies of the 1990s have never been placed ad acta. Many voters discovered the power of their vote at the local elections, in order to reject the ruling parties in urban centres. In Sarajevo, an alternative block won. The Serbian secessionists surrounding the obstructive member of the BiH Presidency Milorad Dodik suffered a defeat in their stronghold Banja Luka. The voting was accompanied by massive electoral fraud.

Interview with Prof. Christian Schwarz-Schilling, Former Federal Minister and former EU High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina The interview was conducted by Marion Kraske, Head of the Office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Sarajevo

They talk about that time, about the summer of 1995, when they were children, when they had to pack their toys hastily in order to get themselves into safety from the Serbian troops. The attacks, the fears – the world seemed to stand still for them then. They talk about how it felt at that time when the then so-called UN safe area no longer provided any protection. How it felt when the hopes to get protection from the internationals from the hatred of the advancing Serbs, dissolved into thin air. At that time, when the international community folded in face of the violence overrunning the whole of Bosnia since 1992 and ultimately culminating in Srebrenica. At some point, as reported by one of the survivors, she understood that she did not have a father anymore.  

The awarding of the Nobel Prize to Peter Handke has far-reaching consequences: His denial of the greatest atrocities which were committed after World War Two on European soil, is likely to disrupt the foundation of our democracies. Values and standards of a civilisational coexistence have been weakened. Thus, anything seems possible again: Human dignity is once more violable.