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Parliament of Republika Srpska Photo: Anadolu

The assembly of Republika Srpska will hold a special session on August 14 with only one item on the agenda – annulling a report on the 1995 Srebrenica massacre that the entity government adopted in 2004.

The report, which the entity government and a commission for Srebrenica put together, acknowledged that Bosnian Serb forces killed thousands of Bosniaks after they overran the eastern Bosnian town in 1995, and said the executions represented a serious violation of humanitarian law.

However, President Dodik, the head of the ruling Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, the main Bosnian Serb party, says the figures in this report are untrue and asked the entity parliament to hold a special session.

Bosniak politicians have condemned the latest move by the RS President as populist gesture that is part of his campaign for the October elections.

Dodik told the media that the 2004 report, containing the names of the victims, and called the “Information of the Commission on the events in Srebrenica in the period July 10-19, 1995,” should have been annulled a long time ago, so that its manipulation could finally stop.

“This is nothing else but a classic start of an election campaign, and in the worst way, because we are always occupied by the same issues while witnessing how our numbers here are decreasing – and how the young are leaving these areas exactly because of those issues that have caused our divisions,” Admir Cavka, a Bosniak MP in Republika Srpska, told the regional TV station N1 on Friday.

The Alliance for Change, a Bosnian Serb opposition alliance, issued a press release also warning about the issue of Srebrenica becoming mixed up in pre-election activities.

“This is a very serious subject in Republika Srpska, and such subjects should not be discussed under the pressure of pre-election activities but rationally and based on solid arguments,” the press release on Friday said.

Verdicts handed down by the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia and Bosnia’s state court have confirmed that Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica killed more than 7,000 men and boys in July 1995. Courts have termed the slaughter a genocide.

The Hague Tribunal and domestic courts have sentenced 45 people to a total of 699 years in prison – plus three life sentences – for genocide, crimes against humanity and other offences against Bosniaks in Srebrenica in July 1995.

There are still several ongoing cases, as well as cases which are not being prosecuted.

Read more:

Srebrenica Victims Buried at Genocide Anniversary Commemoration

Srebrenica Prison Sentences: 699 Years and Counting

Dodik Again Denies Srebrenica Genocide