Source: Bosniak American Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BAACBH.org)

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.