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."



The Seven States That Will Decide the US Presidency

Voters are reflected in a window near an American flag as they mark their ballots during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, at City Hall in Providence, R.I. (AP)
Voters are reflected in a window near an American flag as they mark their ballots during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, at City Hall in Providence, R.I. (AP)
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The Seven States That Will Decide the US Presidency

Voters are reflected in a window near an American flag as they mark their ballots during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, at City Hall in Providence, R.I. (AP)
Voters are reflected in a window near an American flag as they mark their ballots during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, at City Hall in Providence, R.I. (AP)

US Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump are hurtling toward their November 5 election showdown, one of the closest contests in modern American history.

And in the handful of critical states framing the 2024 race, there is little daylight between the rivals with barely a week before Election Day.

Under the US Constitution, America's founding fathers established that each of the 50 states would hold its own vote for president.

Under the complex Electoral College system, each state has a certain number of "electors," based on population. Most states have a winner-take-all system that awards all electors to whoever wins the popular vote.

With candidates needing 270 of the 538 electoral votes to win, elections tend to be decided in the hotly contested "swing states" with a history of alternating between Republican and Democratic candidates.

This year, there are seven such battlegrounds, and every one is a toss-up within the margin of error. Here is a look:

- Pennsylvania (19 Electoral College votes) -

Pennsylvania was once reliably Democratic, but these days, they don't come much tighter than the Keystone State.

Republican Trump won the most populous battleground, with 13 million residents, by 0.7 percentage points in 2016. Joe Biden claimed it by 1.2 percentage points in 2020.

Known for its "Rust Belt" cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has been blighted for decades by the steady decline of its industrial manufacturing base.

Trump and Harris have campaigned repeatedly in the eastern state, where the pair held their one and only presidential debate. Trump, who survived an assassination attempt at a July rally in Pennsylvania, is courting the rural white population and warning that migrants are overwhelming small towns.

Harris is touting recent infrastructure wins, and in Pittsburgh she outlined plans to invest $100 billion in manufacturing, a key issue for state residents.

- Georgia (16) -

This southeastern state was an election flashpoint at the end of Trump's first term, and the controversy simmers.

Prosecutors in Georgia indicted Trump in an election interference case after he called state officials urging them to "find" enough votes to overturn Biden's narrow 2020 victory.

But in a boost for Trump, the case is paused until after the election.

Biden was the first Democrat to win the Peach State since 1992. Demographic changes are likely to benefit Harris, who has courted minority voters across Georgia.

- North Carolina (16) -

The southeastern state has voted Democratic only once since 1980, but Harris believes it's back in play.

The population, now over 10 million, is expanding and growing more diverse, benefiting Democrats.

Complicating matters for Trump, a scandal involving the state's Republican gubernatorial candidate has infuriated party officials who worry it could sink Trump in a close race.

As in neighboring Georgia, one wild card is how the devastation from storm Helene, which recently laid waste to towns in western North Carolina, might impact the vote.

- Michigan (15) -

Trump flipped Michigan, a former Democratic stronghold, on his way to defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Biden returned it to the blue column in 2020, buoyed by unionized workers and a large Black community.

But this time, Harris risks losing the support of a 200,000-strong Arab-American community that has denounced Biden's -- and by extension her -- handling of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

- Arizona (11) -

The Grand Canyon state was among 2020's tightest races, with Biden triumphing by just 10,457 votes.

Trump hopes frustrations over the Biden-Harris administration's immigration policy will swing Arizona, which shares a border with Mexico, back in his favor.

Harris visited Arizona's border in September vowing to crack down on migration and work on reviving last year's bipartisan border bill, which she said Trump "tanked" for political purposes.

- Wisconsin (10) -

Clinton lost Wisconsin after giving the state a wide berth during the 2016 campaign.

As with Midwestern neighbor Michigan, it was a different story when Trump's opponent was Biden, who turned a 23,000-vote deficit into a winning margin of 21,000 for Democrats.

Trump considers it winnable, and his party held its summer national convention there.

While Trump led early against Biden, Harris has made the state race a nailbiter.

- Nevada (6) -

The Silver State, with a population of 3.1 million, hasn't voted Republican since 2004. Conservatives, buoyed by Trump's headway with Hispanic voters, are convinced they can flip the script.

Trump held a significant lead here against Biden.

But within weeks of becoming the Democratic nominee, Harris -- promoting her economic plans to help small businesses and combat inflation -- has erased that advantage in the western state, whose largest city Las Vegas is dominated by the hospitality industry.