(United Nations) The UN General Assembly on Thursday created an International Day of Remembrance of the Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina, despite the anger of Belgrade and the leader of the Bosnian Serbs who still refuses to recognize it.
The resolution, prepared by Germany and Rwanda, two countries marked by other genocides of the 20the century, received 84 votes for, 19 votes against and 68 abstentions.
“This resolution seeks to encourage reconciliation, today and for the future,” justified German Ambassador Ante Leendertse, assuring that the initiative was not directed against Serbia.
“The United Nations was founded on the ashes of the Second World War, a war launched by Nazi Germany that left more than 60 million dead,” she added, stressing that the UN was there to that such crimes are not repeated.
On July 11, 1995, a few months before the end of the intercommunal conflict that had raged in Bosnia for three years, Bosnian Serb forces commanded by General Ratko Mladic took the town of Srebrenica. In the following days, around 8,000 Muslim men and teenagers were executed.
The massacre, the worst killing perpetrated in Europe since the Second World War, was described as genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
It is therefore an indisputable “fact”, insist the supporters of the resolution.
Yet contested. “There was no genocide,” Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik insisted from Srebrenica on Thursday, warning the international community in advance that he would reject the resolution. “We are telling you right now that we will not accept it. It will not be included in school curricula and we will not commemorate July 11.”
One year from the 30e anniversary of the massacre, the resolution proclaims July 11 “International day of reflection and commemoration of the genocide committed in Srebrenica in 1995”.
The text also condemns “without reservation any denial of the historicity of the genocide committed in Srebrenica” and “acts which glorify the people who have been found guilty” of these crimes.
“No place in Europe”
Faced with criticism, the co-authors of the text added, at the request of Montenegro – the former Yugoslav Republic where part of the population identifies as Serbian – a sentence which specifies that the guilt of certain individuals cannot be attributed “ to an ethnic, religious or other group as a whole.”
A modification which did not convince Belgrade and its allies.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who came to New York to fight this initiative, denounced a “highly politicized resolution” just before the vote.
This resolution “will open old wounds and cause political havoc, not only in our region, but also here,” he said, assuring that he paid tribute to “all the victims of the conflicts in Bosnia, Serbs and Bosnians [musulmans] “.
Russia, which in 2015 vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning the Srebrenica genocide, has also castigated in recent days a “provocative” text which “threatens peace and security” in Bosnia and throughout the country. region, accusing Westerners of “Serbophobia”.
In this tense context, the European Union has warned that “anyone who attempts to question [le génocide de Srebrenica] has no place in Europe.
As for the relatives of the victims of the massacre, if they do not forgive, they hope that the Serbs accept the “truth”.
“It is necessary that those who led their people into this position [de déni] accept the truth, so that we can all find peace and resume life,” explained Kada Hotic, 79, whose son, husband and two brothers were killed in the massacre.
“This resolution is of the greatest importance to spread the truth and knowledge about the genocide committed against the Bosnians,” Denis Becirovic, Bosnian member of the collegial presidency of Bosnia, also insisted a few days ago.