Bosnia, Serbia Unlikely to Copy Belgium’s Genocide Denial Law

The Srebrenica massacres were classified as genocide by the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice.

The UN court in The Hague and domestic courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina have sentenced 46 people to around 700 years in prison - plus four life sentences - for genocide, crimes against humanity and other offences against Bosniaks from Srebrenica in 1995.

But even though the Bosnian state court has convicted people of genocide, it is unlikely that the country will follow Belgium's example and criminalise its denial, experts believe.

In Serbia meanwhile, although the country has a law against genocide denial, the Srebrenica massacres are not officially regarded as genocide.

Karadzic verdict sparks calls for action

Sarajevans watch the sentencing of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. Photo: Fehim Demir/EPA.

The most recent defendant to be convicted of genocide was former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in March this year.

This month, in the wake of the Karadzic verdict, 12 associations representing war victims in Bosnia and Herzegovina appealed to domestic and international institutions to support initiatives to stop the denial of genocide and crimes against humanity and the glorification of the perpetrators of such crimes.

Murat Tahirovic, president of the Association of Victims and Witnesses of Genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, told BIRN the initiative was sent to over 1,000 recipients, including political parties and lawmakers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, every member of the European Parliament, US congressmen and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

"We...