MAZALICA: WHAT KIND OF TRUTH FEARS BEING QUESTIONED?

BANJA LUKA, JULY 9 /SRNA/ - Every year in July, commemorative gatherings are held in memory of Serb and Bosniak suffering in the Podrinje region and the area around Bratunac and Srebrenica; however, while some are required to unconditionally accept the term "genocide," others are not even obliged to acknowledge the crime, Srđan Mazalica, Head of the SNSD Caucus in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, told SRNA.

"If someone were to speak about July 1995 without mentioning Bosniak victims, we would rightly say that they were falsifying history. But what do we call it when Srebrenica is discussed without Bratunac, Kravica, Skelani, Zalazje and the Serb villages that were burned in 1992 and 1993? That is also selective history. The only difference is that one form of selectivity is punishable, while the other is encouraged," Mazalica emphasized.

Mazalica said that he does not deny anyone's death, justify any crime, or glorify any criminal, but that he refuses to accept a criminal law left behind by Valentin Inzko that would determine the limits of what he is allowed to question.

He asked: "What kind of truth fears being questioned?"

Mazalica emphasized that truth is established through facts, documents, names, forensic evidence and free scientific inquiry, but that it is not defended by prosecutors and police.

"And what kind of truth is it, and what kind of guardians does it have, if a citizen of this country must first hire a lawyer to ask the following questions — do we distinguish between a person who was captured and then executed, and a soldier who was killed in combat while armed during the breakthrough of an entire division towards Tuzla? Can there be talk about genocide limited to the territory of a single municipality, and can there be talk of an intent to destroy a people if women and children from that municipality were systematically relocated to safe areas?" Mazalica asked.

He noted that Adolf Hitler was never put on trial and was never convicted by a final judgment, and asked whether the Prosecutor's Office and the Court of BiH are acting under a law that permits the glorification of Adolf Hitler.

"Can a judge lock history away and take the key home?" Mazalica asked.

He emphasized that historians continue to debate events that took place 100, 200 and 500 years ago.

"Only here are we being asked to stop thinking about an event from 1995 because someone has decided which sentence is permissible. Because the moment a state says that there is a question you are not allowed to ask, it is no longer protecting the truth. It is admitting that it fears the answer," Mazalica said.