‘NATO propaganda’: Dodik denies genocide, accepts award during World Leaders Forum at Judson University

Calling what was classified as a genocide perpetrated by his fellow ethnic Serbs “NATO propaganda,” Milorad Dodik accepted the first “Leadership and Standing Up for Democracy Award” during the 2026 World Leaders Forum at Judson University in Elgin.

Dodik served as the president of Republika Srpska, one of the two confederal entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 2022 until his removal from office in 2025.

His invitation to the campus had come under fire from some because of his denials of what international authorities have deemed a genocide in Bosnia in 1995.

When asked about what happened in Srebrenica, a UN-designated “safe area” in eastern Bosnia in July 1995, where Bosnian Serb forces were said to have killed more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys, Dodik denied it was genocide, saying “the crime happened against Muslims, against the Serbs and against the Croats as well.”

“All the most prominent scholars in the area of genocide and academics said genocide wasn’t committed,” he said. “It was NATO propaganda.”

Speaking through an interpreter to a full house at Herrick Chapel on the campus of the Christian college, Dodik frequently struck a defiant tone, saying that it wasn’t fair that Serbian politicians and the Serbian army “bear the guilt” for what happened.

“I never had a hatred for anybody,” he said. “I always loved my people and respected others.”

Mark Vargas, a Judson graduate and chairman of the board of directors of the World Leaders Forum, said in a press release earlier in the week that the university had received “hundreds of coordinated messages from international activists calling for the event to be canceled.”

On Thursday, more than 30 people stood in the rain just outside the Elgin campus protesting Dodik’s appearance.

“We are genocide survivors,” said Alma Hodzic of Chicago. “To have Judson University award somebody who is a known genocide denier is a slap in all of our faces.”

Judson University President Gene Crume acknowledged the “concerns” people had about Dodik’s appearance. He said canceling the event “would abandon the very principle of open inquiry that defines a university education.”

“The World Leaders Forum does not endorse any speaker’s view,” he said. “It does create a space for students in the community to confront complex global realities directly.”

Dodik was joined onstage by former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich for a roundtable led by National Review editor-in-chief Rich Lowry.

In giving Dodik the award, Vargas said standing up for what you believe is right is “not always easy.”

“Standing up for your people, for your country and for your freedom never comes easy, but it’s a battle that all of us, no matter who we are, should never stop fighting for,” Vargas said.”

Proceeds from World Leaders Forum events support Judson’s Roeser Scholars program, focused on leadership development, and the RISE program, which provides students with intellectual disabilities the college experience.