Bosnian political officials and representatives of war victim associations have called on the international high representative to dismiss the Minister of Education in Republika Srpska and to remove the controversial content regarding convicted war criminals Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić from history textbooks.
In the ninth-grade history textbooks used in primary schools, which cover the recent war and the creation of Republika Srpska, the roles of Radovan Karadžić, the wartime president of this entity, and Ratko Mladić, the military commander, are mentioned. However, there is no mention of their convictions by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, including for the genocide in Srebrenica and numerous other crimes committed against non-Serbs during the war.
The inclusion of Karadžić and Mladić has sparked severe condemnation in various parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Bosnian member of the state leadership and current Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denis Bećirović, during a meeting with representatives of the Srebrenica and Žepa Mothers’ Association and the Association of Genocide Victims and Witnesses, urged the international representative Christian Schmidt to “stop the glorification of convicted war criminals in the school textbooks of Republika Srpska.”
They are also insisting on the dismissal of Education Minister Željka Stojičić and the prohibition of using the new curricula in the 2024/2025 school year.
In response to the numerous criticisms, Minister Stojičić stated that individuals like Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadžić “played significant roles in the military and political life of Republika Srpska, and therefore cannot be overlooked when presenting events related to the creation of Republika Srpska and the War of Defense and Homeland.”
