UN Approves Resolution to Commemorate 1995 Srebrenica Genocide Despite Serbian Opposition

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

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

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

resolution, sponsored by Germany and Rwanda, doesn’t mention Serbs as culprit, but that didn’t stop intense lobbying campaign for a “no” vote by Bosnian Serb president, Milor Dodik, and populist president of neighbouring Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic.

On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serbs overran a UN-protected safe area in Srebrenica. y separated at least 8,000 Muslim Bosniak men and boys from ir wives, mors and sisters and slaughtered m.

Those who tried to escape were chased through woods and over mountains around town.

Srebrenica killings were a bloody climax of Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, which came after breakup of n-nation of Yugoslavia unleashed nationalist passions and territorial ambitions that set Bosnian Serbs against country’s two or 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.

Dodik, who is president of Republika Srpska, Serb part of Bosnia which comprises about half its territory, said Wednesday on social media platform X that UN resolution is being forced on country by supporters of Muslim Bosniaks and that it will split up country.

He suggested his government would secede from Bosnia if resolution were to pass.

Dodik has me several such threats in past to have Serb-controlled territories secede from Bosnia and join with neighbouring Serbia. He and some or Bosnian Serb officials are under US and British sanctions partly for jeopardising a US peace plan that ended Bosnian war.

final draft of resolution ded a statement reiterating General Assembly’s “unwavering commitment to maintaining stability and fostering unity in diversity in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

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

Germany’s UN Ambassor Antje Leendertse said last week that re is an official UN commemoration of 1994 Rwanda genocide on April 7 every year — day Hutu-led government began killing of members of Tutsi minority and ir supporters.

draft resolution aims “to close gap” by creating a separate UN day “to commemorate victims of Srebrenica,” she said.

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

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

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

“ vote will be an opportunity for more political atre,” he told AP. “I expect Russia and China will make a great point of asking why US and European governments are concentrating on a massacre in 1990s rar than killings in Gaza today.”