Serb MPs Vote Against Holocaust Remembrance Day

Bosnian Serb MPs in the Parliament of Bosnia-Herzegovina voted against proposed legislation calling for 27th January to be officially designated as Holocaust Remembrance Day. The same MPs also voted against the designation of July 11th as Srebrenica Genocide Remembrance Day.

The legislation calling for official recognition of January 27th as Holocaust Remembrance Day and July 11th as Srebrenica Genocide Remembrance Day was formulated and proposed by the Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) MP Adem Huskic.

In his message commemorating Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, on April 21, Huskic took the opportunity to "honor the heroes of the 1943 Warsaw uprising, and also to remember that we still have to fight fascist ideology, so that this ideology will be defeated once and for all."

He also added, "Although the fascist states have been defeated, fascism as an ideology has not. I sincerely hope that the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina will find the courage to adopt legislation against Holocaust and genocide denial. And in that way, it would be a contribution to the fight against fascism."

In the past, Serbs repeatedly blocked Bosniak initiatives in the Parliament to designate Holocaust and Srebrenica Genocide denial a crime, as well as to strengthen laws against anti-semitism.

In May 2007 Ekrem Ajanovic, a Bosniak MP in the Bosnian Parliament proposed a legislation on criminalizing the denial of Holocaust, genocide and crimes against humanity. This was the first time that somebody in Bosnia and Herzegovina's Parliament proposed such a legislation. Bosnian Serb MPs also voted against this legislation.

Following this, on 6 May 2009 Bosniak MP's Adem Huskic, Ekrem Ajanovic and Remzija Kadric proposed to the BH parliament a change to the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina where Holocaust, genocide and crimes against humanity denial would be criminalized. Bosnian Serb MP's have repeatedly been against such a legislation claiming that the law "would cause disagreement and even animosity."

To this day, Serbs refuse to acknowledge Serbia's Nazi past and the involvement of Serbian Chetniks in the extermination of Jews and Bosnian Muslims in World War II.

Holocaust denial is explicitly or implicitly illegal in 13 countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Switzerland.

Here are names of Bosnian Serb Members of Parliament who voted against the proposed legislation on May 13th:

Milorad Zivkovic
Slavko-Slavuj Jovicic
Milica Markovic
Drago Kalabic
Lazar Prodanovic
Zeljko Kuzmanovic
Momcilo Novakovic
Savo Eric
Mirko Okolic
Hadzi Jovan Mitrovic
Branko Dokic

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