[Press release from Bosniak American Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina]
The Bosniak-American Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BAACBH) is astounded by the announcement by Javier Solana, the European Union's Foreign Policy High Representative, about the abolishment of visa travel requirements for citizens of Serbia and Montenegro, a new regime that excludes Bosnia and Herzegovina (B-H). The decision emphasizes that the European Union (EU) is not taking into consideration the implications this decision will have on B-H. The decision will consequently leave Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) as the only citizens of B-H without the possibility of visa-free travel to the EU. It will fuel ethnic divisions as the majority of Bosnian Croats hold dual Bosnian and Croatian citizenship and Bosnian Serbs hold both Bosnian and Serbian citizenship. Furthermore, it will undermine the democratic process of regional stability and reconciliation as both Serbia and Montenegro have been perpetrators of aggression against B-H.
The decision comes only three days after the 14th anniversary of the fall of Srebrenica, a declared United Nations (UN) safe haven, during which the lives of over 8,000 innocent Bosniak victims were brutally taken. BAACBH, a non-profit, non-governmental and non-partisan organization advocating on behalf of Bosnian-Americans, commemorated Srebrenica and the genocide that occurred in B-H, a tragic episode of human history that many said would never happen again. Today, sadly, we see those victims being forgotten, as the exclusion of B-H from the new visa regime means Bosniaks who have survived ethnic cleansing and genocide are persona non grata in the EU.
BAACBH urges the EU and the international community to examine the grave consequences of the exclusion of B-H from the new visa regime and act to rectify the situation.
4 comments:
Contemptibly insensitive timing.
It's worth noting that Albania and Kosovo are also being excluded from the visa liberalization regime...
the boneheadedness of the move, which essentially leaves the Bosniak population (along with the very small number of Bosnians who are declared "other" on the census) out in the cold is astonishing.
From the Judgement Summary read out today, 20 July 2009, at the ICTY at the conclusion of the trial of Milan and Sredoje Lukic:
"The Pionirska street fire and the Bikavac fire exemplify the worst acts of inhumanity that a person may inflict upon others. In the all too long, sad and wretched history of man’s inhumanity to man, the Pionirska street and Bikavac fires must rank high."
Visegrad remains one of the trophies awarded to the criminal conspiracy under whose aegis Milan Lukic perpetrated his many and wide-ranging atrocities.
http://www.icty.org/case/milan_lukic_sredoje_lukic/tjug/en/090720_judg_summary_en.pdf
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