The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution to establish an annual day of commemoration for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia, despite angry protests from Bosnian Serbs and Belgrade.

Supporters of the German-Rwanda-backed resolution say that it is necessary so the massacre is not forgotten.

In the vote in the 193-member General Meeting, 84 states voted in favor, 19 against and 68 abstained, reflecting the international community’s concerns about the impact on efforts to reconcile Bosnia’s divided ethnic groups.

Greece and Cyprus abstained. The resolution designates July 11 as the “International Day of Remembrance and Memorial for the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide” to be observed annually as of this year.

According to Belgrade, the resolution stigmatizes the entire Serbian people. The resolution makes no reference to Serbia being guilty of genocide. Despite this, Bosnian Serb leader, Milorad Doodik, and Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, led an international campaign against the resolution.

On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serbs invaded the town of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which the UN had declared a safe area. They kidnapped at least 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and teenagers, executed them, and prosecuted those who tried to escape.

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The Srebrenica Massacre was the culmination of the Bosnian War (1992-95), which broke out after the breakup of Yugoslavia as a result of nationalism and territorial ambitions, which put the Bosnian Serbs against the other two ethnicities of the country, the Croats and the Bosniaks.

Dodik, the President of Republika Srpska, which is the Serb part of Bosnia and Herzegovina that accounts for about half of its territory, said on social media on Wednesday that the controversial UN resolution was being imposed on the country by supporters of the Bosnian Muslims and would lead to division it. 

It is not the first time that Dodik threatens to secede the Serbian areas from Bosnia-Herzegovina and unite them with Serbia. Both this and other Bosnian Serbs officials have been sanctioned by the United States and the United Kingdom partly because they have jeopardized the peace plan that ended the Bosnian war.

The draft resolution unreservedly condemns any denial of the Srebrenica genocide as a historical event as well as acts glorifying those convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by international courts, including those responsible for the Srebrenica genocide.

Bosnian Serb political leader, Radovan Karadzic, and his military commander, Ratko Mladic, were convicted of genocide in Srebrenica by a special UN tribunal in the Hague. In total, about 50 Bosnian Serb officers and war officials have been sentenced to long-term prison sentences.

Source: Euronews

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