Columbia University Prevents Bosnian Americans from Attending Dodik Lecture
Institute for the Research of Genocide CanadaPublished: October 26, 2011
Columbia University Prevents Bosnian Americans from Attending Dodik Lecture
Bosniak American Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina {BAACBH} strongly condemns Columbia University’s discriminatory actions against Bosnian Americans that occurred yesterday, October 25, 2011. The University’s Harriman Institute of Russian, Eurasian, and Eastern European Studies hosted Milorad Dodik, the President of Republika Srpska (RS), where he gave a lecture titled “An American Foreign Policy Success Story: The Dayton Accords, Republika Srpska, and Bosnia’s European Integration.”
The Columbia Daily Spectator, the student newspaper, reported that a few dozen individuals came to protest Dodik’s speech, but were turned away after being told that their names were not on the list of pre-registered attendees. However, many of these individuals had in fact pre-registered for the event and had printed copies of the confirmations in hand. Individuals with what sounded like Bosnian Muslim names were taken off the list, while individuals with Serb or American sounding names were permitted to enter. When those present objected to being excluded to the event for which they had confirmed registrations, they were threatened with arrest by Columbia University security. This is clear discrimination by the Harriman Institute and Columbia University, and it poses potential legal consequences.
BAACBH has strongly opposed Columbia University’s willingness to host Mr. Dodik from the outset, and sent a protest letter together with partner organizations. Mr. Dodik denies that genocide took place in Srebrenica despite the fact that the U.S. Congress passed H.R. 199 defining the crime as genocide and both the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) have ruled that genocide occurred in Srebrenica. Since his rise to power Dodik has undermined the reconciliation and post war rebuilding process in BiH. He has constantly menaced BiH with the threat of secession by the RS, has openly questioned the validity of the BiH state court system, undermined the rule of law, and has actively opposed the prosecution of war crimes committed by the Serbs during the aggression on BiH in the early 1990′s.
Columbia University’s decision to provide a forum to a political figure so detrimental to the peace and reconciliation process in Bosnia is all the more concerning because of the University’s decision to exclude Bosnian Americans from the event. Such actions run counter to open dialogue and diversity of opinion that characterize institutions of higher learning. It is all the more painful to the Bosnian Americans who could not enter the event last evening because many of them fled their hometowns in the early 1990′s for fear of persecution of the Serb army precisely because of their names. BAACBH has tried to contact the Harriman Institute for comments without success and strongly advises the University to take the necessary steps to repair the damage caused by its actions.
BAACBH encourages all Bosnian Americans and all friends of Bosnia to ACT NOW and send a protest letter to:
John Coatsworth, Dean of School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia jhc2125@columbia.edu
Timothy Frye, Director of Harriman Institute, tmf2@columbia.edu
lan Timberlake, Director East Central European Center at Columbia, at2205@columbia.edu
Protest Letter to Columbia University for hosting genocide denier, Milorad Dodik
Institute for the Research of Genocide CanadaPublished: October 23, 2011
Protest Letter to Columbia University for hosting genocide denier, Milorad Dodik
October 23, 2011
John H. Coatsworth, Ph.D
Dean, School of International and Public Affairs
Columbia University
14th floor, MC 3328
New York, NY 10027
Timothy Frye , Ph.D.
Director, The Harriman Institute
Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy
Columbia University
Dear Dr. Coatsworth and Dr. Frye:
We are writing to you on behalf of 300,000 Bosnian Americans and 50,000 Bosnian Canadians to protest the planned event organized by The Harriman Institute and SIPA on October 25, 2011, featuring Milorad Dodik, the current President of Republika Srpska (RS).
Milorad Dodik is a genocide denier and tirelessly promotes ethnic division within Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). In April of 2010, Mr. Dodik gave an interview to the Belgrade newspaper “Vecernje Novosti” openly stating that “Bosnian Serbs will never accept that the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Muslims was genocide.” Mr. Dodik went further to say that “We cannot and will never accept qualifying that event as genocide.” By denying genocide, Mr. Dodik is actively working against the peace and reconciliation process within BiH. Both the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) have ruled that what happened in Srebrenica was genocide. In addition, the U.S. Congress passed H.R.199, which defined the crime as genocide.
Dodik’s morally reprehensible rhetoric on Srebrenica and his obstructionist attitude towards Bosnia as a unified state threatens the peace, stability and prosperity of not only BiH but also Southeast Europe. Dodik actively supports the defense of Ratko Mladic, the indicted war criminal currently standing trial at The Hague for the Siege of Sarajevo and the genocide in Srebrenica.
Dodik actively encourages a lack of accountability for war crimes committed by the Serbs during the aggression on BiH in the early 1990′s. Furthermore, Dodik has worked to undermine the authority and proper functioning of national intuitions, including the BiH state court system responsible for war crimes prosecution. Mr. Dodik continues to menace the country with the possibility of an illegal secession by the RS, the consequence of which includes the possibility of renewed violence in a society still deeply traumatized by war.
Ultimately, the same parties under Dodik’s leadership within the Republika Srpska who were responsible for the deliberate destruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who were then rewarded in the Dayton Agreement with territorial and political concessions gained through genocidal violence, are now actively working to impair the reintegration of the country as a unified, sovereign state.
We strongly object to Columbia University providing a platform of legitimacy to Milorad Dodik and urge that his invitation be withdrawn.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Haris Alibasic, MPA, President
The Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB)
www.bosniak.org
Ajla Delkic
Executive Director
Bosniak American Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BAACBH)
www.baacbh.org
Prof. Emir Ramić, Mr. Sc. Chairman
Institute for the Research of Genocide, Canada (IRGC)
http://www.instituteforgenocide.ca/
Sanja Seferovic-Drnovsek J.D, MEd, Chair
Bosnian American Genocide Institute and Education Center
www.baginst.org
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