Official statement on the announced awarding of Israeli historian Gideon Greif

As a German-Bosnian-Herzegovinian network representing the interests of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian diaspora in Germany, we would like to address the announced decoration of Israeli historian Gideon Greif. After the first media reports about this announcement, we received dozens of messages from outraged fellow citizens from Germany and neighboring countries who cannot understand such an honor.

In the statement, we quote from the scandalous final report of the so-called Independent International Commission to Investigate the Srebrenica Region , we refer to the statement of the Deputy President of the World Jewish Congress, Menachem Z. Rosensaft , who last summer sharply criticized the commission headed by Greif. We also refer to the judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (UN war crimes tribunal, abbreviated as ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) . In addition, unfortunately unknown to the general public, we refer to the judgments of German courts that, in addition to Srebrenica in the late 1990s and early 2000s, established genocide in other municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period from 1992-1995. Significant parts of these judgments were also confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. In this statement, we cite the “Jorgić” case, the “Novislav Đajić” case and the “Maksim Sokolović” case.

Finally, we recommended to President Steinmeier an oral history project and interviews with survivors of the Srebrenica genocide at the Srebrenica Memorial Center and a visit to the Memorial Center itself so that he could think intensively on site about what awarding genocide deniers would mean for the people who lost everything in July 1995.

You can read the full press release in German on our website.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Sincerely,

Ahmed Spahic
Vorstandsvorsitzender – pangea netzwerk / President of the Board of Directors – Pangea Network

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Über das pangea netzwerk / About the pangea network

[DE] Das pangea netzwerk – Das deutsch-bosnische Netzwerk für Wirtschaft, Bildung und Akademie ist die größte Vereinigung seiner Art im deutschsprachigen Raum und vernetzt derzeit mehr als als engagierte Professionals, Akademiker und Studierende mit den unterschiedlichsten universitären Hintergründen in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz. Der Hauptfokus des Netzwerks liegt dabei auf der Vernetzung von bosnisch-stämmigen Menschen mit dem Ziel der Vermittlung von Bildungschancen und berufitschen Perspektiven. In addition, the Netzwerk serves as a bridge builder between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the political, cultural and economic senses. Gleichzeit setz sich das Netzwerk als Sprachrohr für die europäische Perspektive Bosnien und Herzegowinas als futures vollwertiges Mitglied der Europäischen Union ein.

[BS] The German-Bosnian-Herzegovinian Network for Economics, Education and Academia is the largest association of its kind in the German-speaking area and currently networks more than 150 professionals, academics and students with a wide variety of academic backgrounds in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The Network’s main focus is on networking people of Bosnian-Herzegovinian origin, with the aim of providing educational opportunities and career prospects. In addition, the Network serves as a bridge builder between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Germany, Austria and Switzerland in political, cultural and economic terms. At the same time, the Network acts as a strong advocate for the European perspective of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a future full member of the European Union.