BUDIMIR: BOSNIAK POLICY TOWARDS SERB VICTIMS EXPOSED

BANJA LUKA, SEPTEMBER 15 /SRNA/ - An attempt is being made in BiH to impose a narrative that only Bosniaks were victims of the war, and the current policy towards Serb victims has now been fully exposed, Republika Srpska Interior Minister Željko Budimir said.

Commenting on a statement by former head of the Islamic Community in BiH Mustafa Cerić, who described the international digital campaign "Learn About the Suffering of the Serb People," organized by the Republika Srpska Memorial Centre at key locations in Rome, as propaganda, Budimir said that Bosniaks often try to label efforts to draw attention to Serb victims in this way. "According to Bosniaks, it is propaganda when it comes to the Serb side and Serb victims. As if a Serb tear should not exist and as if a Serb mother should not mourn her dead," Budimir told reporters in Banja Luka. Budimir noted that there is insufficient discussion of the suffering of Serbs in the Podrinje region, Sarajevo, and other sites of mass killings, also reminding that 157,000 Serbs were ethnically cleansed from Sarajevo. He said that the suffering of Serbs is not acknowledged and that Bosniak policy in BiH is based on the notion that they alone were victims in a war in which all sides suffered. Budimir noted that data on the deaths of Republika Srpska Army members and civilians, when viewed in relation to the population size, demonstrate the scale of suffering on the Serb side as well. "Some 26,000 Republika Srpska Army soldiers and more than 30,000 people killed, including civilians, show that when the number of victims is compared with the population size, roughly the same number of people were killed on the Serb side. This is, of course, not accepted, and that is what is not good for this country," Budimir pointed out. He stressed that Serbs expect nothing else from that side. "The gloves are off, and this policy has been fully exposed, so that you can see who you are dealing with on the other side," Budimir concluded.