Serious charges against Sweden's Foreign Minister Bildt: You should have prevented the visit of the Serb genocide denier Dodik!

Following the visit of the Prime Minister of the so-called Bosnian constituent republic "Republika Srpska", Milorad Dodik, to Sweden the Society for Threatened Peoples GfbV) raised serious charges on Thursday against Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt. "As the former Commissioner to Bosnia of the EU and UN you should definitely have prevented this genocide denier from visiting Sweden and visiting there the Serb war criminal Biljana Plavsic", said the GfbV chair, Tilman Zülch, in Göttingen. "It is disgraceful that you allowed the two to speak about welcome celebrations for Plavsic in Belgrade and Banja Luka." This means that once again a "fatal signal" was given from Sweden, implying that to deny war crimes, as Dodik did last Saturday, is socially acceptable in the world, criticised the human rights expert.

Dodik denied at the weekend war crimes by Serb troops by making the defenders of Sarajevo and Tuzla responsible for three massacres committed by Serb militia in the two cities during the Bosnian war. They resulted in the deaths of 176 people. Biljana Plavsic was sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague for crimes against humanity to eleven years imprisonment, which she is serving in the Swedish prison of Hinseberg. After serving two thirds of her sentence she will probably be released early on 27th October 2009.

For further information and interviews please contact the GfbV chair, Tilman Zülch, at politik@gfbv.de