UN Approves Resolution to Commemorate 1995 Srebrenica Genocide Annually Over Serb Opposition 

Screens show results of the United Nations General Assembly's vote on the creation of an international day to commemorate the Srebrenica genocide, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, US, May 23, 2024. (Reuters)
Screens show results of the United Nations General Assembly's vote on the creation of an international day to commemorate the Srebrenica genocide, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, US, May 23, 2024. (Reuters)
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UN Approves Resolution to Commemorate 1995 Srebrenica Genocide Annually Over Serb Opposition 

Screens show results of the United Nations General Assembly's vote on the creation of an international day to commemorate the Srebrenica genocide, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, US, May 23, 2024. (Reuters)
Screens show results of the United Nations General Assembly's vote on the creation of an international day to commemorate the Srebrenica genocide, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, US, May 23, 2024. (Reuters)

The United Nations approved a resolution Thursday establishing an annual day to commemorate the 1995 genocide of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims by Bosnian Serbs, a move vehemently opposed by Serbs who fear it will brand them all as "genocidal" supporters of the mass killing.

The vote in the 193-member General Assembly was 84-19 with 68 nations abstaining, a reflection of concerns among many countries about the impact of the vote on reconciliation efforts in deeply divided Bosnia.

Supporters had hoped for 100 "yes" votes. Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, who voted against the resolution, told the assembly the combined abstentions and "no" votes — 87 — was more than the 84 votes in favor. It is also noteworthy that 22 countries skipped the meeting and didn't vote, some reportedly because of the dispute over the commemoration.

The resolution designates July 11 as the "International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica," to be observed annually starting in two months.

The resolution, sponsored by Germany and Rwanda, doesn’t mention Serbs as the culprit, but that didn’t stop the intense lobbying campaign for a "no" vote by Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik and the populist president of neighboring Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, who had a Serbian flag draped over his shoulders as he sat in the assembly chamber during the vote.

Vukic told UN members after the vote that all those involved in the Srebrenica massacre have already been convicted and sentenced to prison and said the only purpose of the resolution was "to put moral and political guilt on one side" — the people of Serbia and Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb half of Bosnia.

"Those people that wanted to stigmatize Serbian people, they did not succeed and they will never succeed," he said. "Nothing could have ever united Serbian people better than what was happening here today."

Russia's Nebenzia called the resolution's adoption "a Pyrrhic victory for its sponsors," saying if their goal "was to divide the General Assembly ... then they've succeeded brilliantly."

But the resolution's adoption was welcomed by Zeljko Komsic, the Croat member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, family members of Srebrenica victims, UN human rights chief Volker Türk and by many Western and Muslim nations.

The United States was one of more than 40 co-sponsors of the resolution, and the US Mission to the United Nations welcomed its adoption in a tweet, saying "we honor the victims and commit to a more peaceful, stable world."

"We actually expected more countries to be in favor, but we are satisfied," Sehida Abdurahmanovic who lost several family members during the genocide, told AP. "Those who abstained and voted against — we will put them on a pillar of shame that we are building at the memorial center."

On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serbs overran a UN-protected safe area in Srebrenica. They separated at least 8,000 Muslim Bosniak men and boys from their wives, mothers and sisters and slaughtered them. Those who tried to escape were chased through the woods and over the mountains around the town.

The Srebrenica killings were a bloody climax of Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, which came after the breakup of then-Yugoslavia unleashed nationalist passions and territorial ambitions that set Bosnian Serbs against the country’s two other main ethnic populations, Croats and Muslim Bosniaks.

Both Serbia and Bosnian Serbs have denied that genocide happened in Srebrenica although this has been established by two UN courts.

Before the vote, Vucic urged UN members to vote "no," calling the resolution "highly politicized." He warned that it will open "Pandora's Box," and said it was not about reconciliation. He said it will only "open old wounds" and create "complete political havoc" in the region and at the UN. He also strongly attacked Germany for trying to give "moral lessons" to the international community and to Serbia.

The determination in 2007 by the International Court of Justice, the UN’s highest tribunal, that the acts committed in Srebrenica constituted genocide, is included in the draft resolution. It was Europe’s first genocide since the Nazi Holocaust in World War II, which killed an estimated 6 million Jews and people from other minorities.

Germany’s UN Ambassador Antje Leendertse introduced the resolution, saying her country wants to build a multilateral system to prevent a repetition of Nazi Germany's crimes and to honor the memory of the Srebrenica victims and support the survivors. The resolution "is not directed against anybody, not against Serbia," she said, adding that if anything it is directed at the perpetrators of genocide.

Leendertse noted that there is an official UN commemoration of the 1994 Rwanda genocide on April 7 every year — the day the Hutu-led government began the killing of members of the Tutsi minority and their supporters. The resolution is aimed at "closing the gap" by creating a separate UN day to commemorate the victims of Srebrenica, she said.

Menachem Rosensaft, the son of Holocaust survivors who is an adjunct professor at Cornell Law School, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that designating July 11 as the official day of remembrance for the Srebrenica genocide "is a moral and legal imperative."

The slain Muslim Bosniaks deserve to have their deaths and the manner of their deaths commemorated and Srebrenica was supposed to be a safe area but was abandoned by Dutch UN peacekeepers, leaving the Bosniaks who sought shelter there "to be murdered on the UN’s watch," Rosensaft said.

Richard Gowan, UN director of the International Crisis Group, called the timing of the vote "unfortunate, given allegations that Israel is pursuing genocide in Gaza."



Russia’s Medvedev Warns the US: Avoid World War Three

 Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council and leader of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev speaks during a meeting of the United Russia party's programme commission via videoconference at the Gorki state residence outside Moscow, Russia, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (Ekaterina Shtukina, Sputnik Pool Photo via AP)
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council and leader of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev speaks during a meeting of the United Russia party's programme commission via videoconference at the Gorki state residence outside Moscow, Russia, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (Ekaterina Shtukina, Sputnik Pool Photo via AP)
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Russia’s Medvedev Warns the US: Avoid World War Three

 Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council and leader of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev speaks during a meeting of the United Russia party's programme commission via videoconference at the Gorki state residence outside Moscow, Russia, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (Ekaterina Shtukina, Sputnik Pool Photo via AP)
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council and leader of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev speaks during a meeting of the United Russia party's programme commission via videoconference at the Gorki state residence outside Moscow, Russia, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (Ekaterina Shtukina, Sputnik Pool Photo via AP)

Dmitry Medvedev, a senior Russian security official who served as Russia's president from 2008 to 2012, warned the United States on Saturday to take Russia's nuclear warnings seriously to avoid World War Three.

Medvedev, who serves as deputy chairman of Russia's powerful security council, told RT broadcaster that top US officials did not want World War Three but for some reason they believe "that the Russians will never cross a certain line."

"They are wrong," Medvedev told RT, adding that Moscow believed the current US and European political establishments lacked the "foresight and subtlety of mind" displayed by the late Henry Kissinger.

"If we are talking about the existence of our state, as the president of our country has repeatedly said, your humble servant has said, others have said, of course, we simply will not have any choice," Medvedev said.

The 2-1/2-year-old war in Ukraine is entering what Russian officials say is its most dangerous phase as Russian forces are advancing in eastern Ukraine and the West considers how to shore up Ukraine.

Russia has been signaling for weeks to the West that Moscow will respond if the United States and its allies help Ukraine fire longer-range missiles deep into Russia, while NATO says that North Korea has sent troops to western Russia.

Russian officials say the leaders of the West have failed to heed the signals Moscow has sent over European security and the escalation of the war in Ukraine.

US diplomats say the relationship with Russia is worse than at any time since the depths of the Cold War but that Washington does not seek to escalate the war in Ukraine.