Bosnia urges Paris on ‘Bosnian genocide bill’

SARAJEVO / PARIS - Anatolia News Agency

Bosnian cleric Mustafa Ceric (L) criticizes France over its ‘genocide’ bill.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Parliament will suggest to the French Senate that it approve a bill criminalizing anyone who denies the mass killings of Bosnians during the 1990s war amounted to genocide, said a deputy.

“This genocide is approved by the international courts and it would be meaningful for France to approve it rather than dealing with issues that are not proved by historians or experts,” Party of Democratic Action (SDA) deputy Safet Keşo told Anatolia news agency, referring to the French bill recently approved by the French Senate penalizing the denial of Armenian genocide allegations. Keşo has prepared a bill to be sent to the French Senate demanding the penalization of the denial of the “Bosnian genocide in Srebrenica during the 1990s.” The draft bill was approved Jan. 25 by the House of Representatives of Bosnia, one of the two chambers of Bosnia’s Parliament.

Keşo said their bill request would be an opportunity to test the principles of the French Senate. After approving the genocide bill on the Armenian issue, the French Senate should approve their bill, too, as they had all been a witness to the killings in Bosnia, Keşo said.