Peace Prize must also be an obligation for the EU: Reunite Bosnia and Cyprus!

According to the Society for Threatened Peoples in Göttingen, the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize must also be an obligation for the EU to intensify peace work for the own continent. After Germany and Europe were reunited, the EU should not tolerate any other forced parting of European states or the emergence of an apartheid system. The main goals should now be reunifications of Bosnia / Herzegovina and of Cyprus.

"After the EU witnessed a war, the genocide and forced displacement going on in Bosnia and Herzegovina for years, it must now be ensured that the survivors of war crimes and the families of at least 100,000 dead civilians see justice during their lifetime," said the STP's General Secretary, Tilman Zülch. "Mistakes of the past must be corrected. After the Dayton Peace Agreement of 1995, half of Bosnia was left to the followers of the Serbian leaders and war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. Now the EU must finally enforce a reunification of Bosnia, so that more than one million Bosnian refugees who are now living all over the world can return to their now Serb-dominated hometowns. The EU can not just accept the fact that the authorities deny the genocide and even celebrate the war crimes against the Bosnians, for which the Serbian regime was mainly responsible."

Further, the STP stated that the EU should not accept the forced partition of Cyprus, the northern half of the island being occupied by Turkish troops since 1974. The Greek Cypriots were forced to leave this part of the island – and the former majority of Turkish Cypriots was superseded by Anatolian families that settled there. Here too, a real effort must be undergone to reunite the island to form a common state. "This goal is not reached as long as the UN peacekeepers are not yet able to leave the border that was drawn by the Turkish army."