The Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Kosovo (YIHR Kosovo) and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Serbia (YIHR Serbia) have strongly condemned the announcement of the war criminal, Vladimir Lazarevic, as an honorary citizen by the municipality Pantelej of Nish of Serbia''.
The decision to honor was supported by the municipal assembly controlled by the Serbian Progressive Party of the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić.
"We call on the government of Serbia to stop honoring war criminals and focus on the reconciliation process by working together with other countries in the region in the processes of dealing with the past. It is the responsibility of the authorities in Serbia not to glorify war criminals like Lazarevic. On the contrary, the state of Serbia has an obligation to prosecute all those who have committed war crimes, but also to use the formal education system to promote the culture of commemoration of war victims in Kosovo. We, as a generation of young people from Kosovo and Serbia, will always be against honoring war criminals. We will continue to oppose the one-sided narratives of history and will work to educate the youth in building peace between the two states'', their reaction states.
YIHR adds that no agreement on the normalization of relations between the two states can be reached without all war criminals being punished.
"We believe that no binding agreement for the normalization of relations between the two states will be able to bring peace and development to both societies, without punishing all war criminals and honoring all war victims by the relevant institutions. of both states", continues their reaction.
also
The criminal convicted by The Hague for crimes in Kosovo is declared an honorary citizen in Serbia
Lazarevic has been in prison for 10 years due to the sentence imposed by the International Tribunal of the Hague for the former Yugoslavia, due to the deportations and inhumane treatment of Kosovars, as he was in the position of commander of the Yugoslav army in Pristina in the 1990s.
Lazarevic returned to Nis in December 2015, as he was released after serving two-thirds of his sentence in The Hague.
