Against Serbia’s resistance, the UN General Assembly decided to establish a day of remembrance for the Srebrenica massacre. In the future, the genocide will be remembered worldwide on July 11th.
On July 11, the 1995 Srebrenica genocide will be commemorated worldwide. Despite a number of votes against and abstentions, the United Nations General Assembly in New York voted in favor of a draft resolution for a “Day of Reflection and Remembrance”. The day will be officially celebrated for the first time in 2025.
The corresponding resolution was approved with 84 votes; 68 countries abstained. 19 countries voted against it – including Serbia, Russia and China. Memorial days are actually decided unanimously at the UN.
Genocide of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims
The text prepared by Germany and Rwanda is intended to help remember the genocide of over 8,000 Bosnian Muslims. “Our initiative is about honoring the memory of the victims and supporting the survivors who continue to live with the scars of this fateful time,” said German UN Ambassador Antje Leendertse. The resolution “unconditionally condemns any denial of the Srebrenica genocide as a historical event” and actions that glorify those “convicted by international courts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.”
Serbia sees division through resolution
Serbia’s government expressed dissatisfaction, arguing that the resolution would divide the region and create a hierarchy among the war’s victims. President Aleksandar Vucic took the microphone before the vote: “It is difficult to speak to Germany, which represents the most powerful country in Europe and feels unequivocally entitled to give moral lessons to everyone who disagrees.” He accused Berlin of having “kept secret” the work on the resolution. The decision is opening wounds and will cause chaos in the Balkans. “Why didn’t these people start talking about the genocide that their country committed?” Vucic asked, referring to the Holocaust.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the decision would open wounds and cause chaos in the Balkans.
In her speech, Ambassador Leendertse addressed “false allegations”: “This resolution is not directed against anyone – not against Serbia, a valued member of this organization. If anything, it is directed against perpetrators of genocide.”
Genocidal character of the massacre legally proven
During the Bosnian war, 8,000 Bosnian Muslims fell victim to the Srebrenica massacre on July 11, 1995 and the days that followed – the majority of them men and male youths. Women, girls and children were deported in buses to the front line in the area controlled by the Bosnian army. Judgments by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have legally established the genocidal nature of the Srebrenica massacre.
The then political leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, and the commander of the so-called Bosnian Serb Army (BSA), Ratko Mladic, were sentenced to life in prison by the ICTY. In Serbia under President Vucic and in the Serbian part of Bosnia, the Republika Srpska, under its President Milorad Dodik, the denial of the Srebrenica genocide and the heroization of the perpetrators is, so to speak, state policy. Vucic argues that the UN resolution would collectively condemn the “Serbian people” – but it does not even mention Serbia by name.