(Sarajevo) Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik said Saturday that the Srebrenica genocide was a “sham,” criticizing a draft resolution being prepared at the UN General Assembly that provokes anger in Serbia and the Bosnian Serb entity.
“Srebrenica […] is a sham imagined from the start, because the Americans and certain others needed it to justify their bombings (of the military positions of the Bosnian Serbs to end the war of the 1990s, Editor’s note),” declared Milorad Dodik, during a commemoration in Banja Luka (north) dedicated to the Bosnian Serb fighters who died during this conflict.
Mr. Dodik, who is president of Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb entity, has repeatedly denied in recent times that this massacre was an act of genocide and reduced the number of victims.
In this massacre, committed in July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces killed more than 8,000 Bosnian (Muslim) men and teenagers in the surroundings of this town in eastern Bosnia.
This crime was classified as genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It is the worst crime committed during the Bosnian intercommunal war (1992-95), which left nearly 100,000 dead.
According to the draft resolution initiated by Germany and Rwanda – consulted by AFP – July 11 would become the “International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the Srebrenica Genocide” from July 11, 2025, on the occasion of 30e anniversary of the massacre.
The vote is expected to take place in the coming days.
The leaders of the Bosnian Serb entity and Serbia admit that a “horrible crime” was committed in Srebrenica, but reject the characterization of genocide.
At a rally in April in Banja Luka, Milorad Dodik declared that “the operation of the army of Republika Srpska in July 1995 in Srebrenica was a mistake.” Before adding: “But it was not a genocide”.
On Saturday morning, Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic said on a television channel that the objective of the resolution was to “designate the Serbian people as the executors of the genocide” and to impose “collective responsibility” on them.
The text, which condemns “any denial of the Srebrenica genocide as a historical event”, does not mention the Serbian people. Neither does Serbia or Republika Srpska.
But he refers to the convictions for genocide of former political and military leaders of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, by the ICTY.