The 1995 Srebrenica genocide, an open wound for the Bosnian Muslim community, continues to be dismissed by Serb officials and media despite a downward trend in denials, a report said Thursday.
Bosnian Serb forces captured the eastern town on July 11, 1995, just months before the end of Bosnia's war. They then killed some 8,000 Muslim men and boys, an act labeled genocide by two international courts.
The report by Bosnia and Herzegovina's Srebrenica Memorial Center was prepared in line with research done between May 2022 and May 2023 into denials and downplaying statements of media outlets and public figures from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro.
It found that the genocide is mostly denied by leaders of the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska, that along with the Muslim-Croat Federation makes up post-war Bosnia, notably its President Milorad Dodik.
"There was no genocide in Srebrenica ... I say that with a clear conscience," Dodik said earlier in April.
The report identified Dodik as "the biggest denier of the genocide." He denied the killings 11 times – or nearly once a month – between the specified dates.
He was followed by Serbia's "Alo!" news portal that denied the genocide nine times. Croatian President Zoran Milanovic came in sixth place for denying the genocide at least four times.
The report, however, added that denial of the genocide fell compared to the previous three-year periods.
It was recorded that the genocide was denied 681 times in 2021, 240 times in 2022, and 90 times in 2023.
Since 2021, the denial of the Srebrenica genocide and other war crimes, as well as the glorification of war criminals, is punishable with up to five years in jail.
As a consequence, the number of reported cases has dropped, according to the report, although no one has yet been prosecuted.
The Srebrenica atrocity was the worst during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war that claimed nearly 100,000 lives.
A U.N. court sentenced both Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic and his army chief Ratko Mladic to life in prison, notably for Srebrenica.
The denials occur mostly in July, during the period of commemorations for the victims.
In July, two Bosnian Serb students sparked outrage among Muslims by glorifying Mladic on social media.
A few days later, head of Serbia's intelligence agency (BIA) Aleksandar Vulin offered them a scholarship and the possibility to continue their studies at the agency's academy in Belgrade.
