Bosnia's Foreign Ministry sent a demarche to the Republic of Croatia Wednesday over statements made by President Zoran Milanovic denying the genocide in Srebrenica.

The Ministry expressed the strongest condemnation of the statement of the President of the Republic of Croatia, Zoran Milanovic, dated September 12, 2022, in which, during the working lunch at the Brdo-Brijuni summit, he denied the genocide in Srebrenica, the demarche stated.

The Ministry recalled, among other things, that on January 9, 2009, the European Parliament adopted a Resolution calling for July 11 to be marked throughout the European Union as the Day of Remembrance of the Genocide in Srebrenica, and that the amendments to the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina dated 22 July 2021, prohibit and punish the denial of genocide and glorification of war criminals.

“We note that the genocide in Srebrenica was established by the verdicts of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice and, therefore, any form of genocide denial must be unequivocally rejected. Convinced of the position of the Republic of Croatia in terms of respect for international law, judgments of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, respect for the highest standards of human rights and preservation of good mutual relations, we demand an immediate withdrawal of the statements, as well as an apology to the families of the victims of the genocide in Srebrenica,” the demarche stated among other things.

Milanovic’s office denied the allegations in a written statement to N1, on Wednesday, but BiH Presidency Chairman Sefik Dzaferovic’s Office confirmed the allegations reported on by all major news outlets in the region, saying that Dzaferovic and other Western Balkan presidents reacted and recalled the verdicts of international courts proving that genocide did indeed occur in Srebrenica.