Bosnian Serbs Given Deadline to Revoke War Criminals’ Honours

High Representative Valentin Inzko, the international overseer of Bosnia and Herzegovina's peace agreement, has sent a letter demanded that Republika Srpska National Assembly, the parliament in the Serb-dominated entity, annuls honours that it awarded last October to people convicted of war crimes within "a deadline of three months, by the end of April 2021".

"Among those awarded were all former National Assembly speakers and members of Republika Srpska's first presidency, including Radovan Karadzic, Momcilo Krajisnik and Biljana Plavsic, whose actions shocked the world during the armed conflict and caused unimaginable human suffering," says the letter addressed to Nedeljko Cubrilovic, speaker of the Republika Srpska parliament.

"As you know, Karadzic, Krajisnik and Plavsic were convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia," adds the letter, which BIRN has seen.

Inzko writes in the letter that "the glorification of war criminals… directly hurts and provokes those who suffered the consequences of the war", as well as jeopardising prospects for reconciliation.

He notes that a plaque at a student dormitory honouring Karadzic, which caused a political storm, was taken down in December after his daughter Sonja Karadzic-Jovicevic called for its removal to end the controversy.

"This creates an extraordinary opportunity for the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska, led by you, to continue on this path to show political maturity, moral responsibility and future orientation, by honouring the victims and correcting the shame of October 24, 2016, by revoking the charters with decorations awarded to convicted war criminals Karadzic, Krajisnik and Plavsic, thus you personally and the institution...