Bilcik Says Called for Rejecting Glorification of War Criminals on Several Occasions

Vladimir Bilcik (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC/DS)

The European Parliament's rapporteur for Serbia, Vladimir Bilcik, called on Nov. 11 on Serbia and other Western Balkan countries to continue efforts toward reconciliation and strengthening good neighborly ties at all levels.

After a joint statement by nine members of the European Parliament in which they call on the Serbian authorities to stop negating genocide in Srebrenica and glorifying convicted war criminals which he did not sign, Bilcik tweeted that he had called for the rejection of glorifying war criminals several times, the last time in August 2021.

He recalled that, in his report on Serbia, which was adopted by a large majority in the EP earlier this year, "There is a paragraph that explicitly condemns all forms of glorifying war criminals" and that, in that context, he continuously supports the founding of REKOM (a regional commission for establishing the facts on war crimes and other grave violations of human rights committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia).

It is completely unacceptable for a state nominated for membership in the EU to deploy its police to protect a mural of a convicted war criminal (Ratko Mladic), who is directly responsible for the crimes and mass murders in and around Srebrenica in July 1995, which directly contributes to retraumatizing the victims, the joint statement signed by the nine MEPs says.