The law is being prepared, whoever mentions one word will be imprisoned

The law is being prepared, whoever mentions one word will be imprisoned

According to Novosti, the law could be submitted in the BiH Parliament in early February.

The mentioned proposal envisages that anyone who calls a certain collective, i.e. BiH, Srpska, the Federation of BiH, Brcko or the cantons genocidal, should be sentenced to five years in prison. Anyone who says that any national group in BiH is genocidal should end up imprisoned for half a decade.

However, the key to adopting the mentioned solution, or opening a debate in the BiH Parliament, according to "Novosti" sources, is now on the parties from the Federation of BiH, primarily Bosniaks, which should decide whether to repeal the imposed amendments to the BiH Criminal Code implemented by Valentin Inzko and support the debate on a new legal solution in the BiH Parliament.

Nenad Stevandic, head of the Serbian Club in the BiH Parliament, says for "Novosti" that it is realistic to adopt the proposal coming from RS, because it is an act that treats all peoples, ethnic groups in BiH, but also the entities and the state of BiH.

"If there is an understanding for equality in the Federation of BiH and the Bosniak political corps, the legal solution will be adopted in the BiH Parliament. But if they want to continue targeting one people and entity, then it will be confirmation that there are no talks with FBiH on equality," he said.

Stevandic points out that Inzko's imposed decision to amend the BiH Criminal Code is Europe's greatest shame, because the European Commission has given a clear position that the laws are not adopted by the High Representative in BiH but by the BiH authorities and the BiH Parliament and added that he expects support from RS opposition parties that have representatives in the BiH Parliament.

The Serbian member of the Presidency of BiH, Milorad Dodik, confirmed that Srpska will propose a new legal solution on the ban on calling genocidal collectives or national groups in BiH. He says RS remains committed to withdrawing changes to the Criminal Code imposed by former High Representative Valentin Inzko.

"There is no doubt that he is unacceptable for us. Everything that Inzko imposed was aimed at establishing it, accepting it, and then starting an avalanche of accusations that RS and the Serbian people are allegedly genocidal, after which a political platform would spread around the world - that what is genocidal cannot even exist", said Dodik.