- The leader of the Bosnian Serb side on Wednesday reiterated his threat to divide the Balkan country.
- This comes a day before a planned vote at the UN to establish an annual day to commemorate the 1995 genocide of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at the hands of the Bosnian Serbs.
- The proposed UN resolution has sparked protests and a lobbying campaign against the move by Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik.
The leader of the Bosnian Serb territory reiterated his threat to secede from the Balkan country on Wednesday, a day before a planned vote at the UN to establish an annual day to commemorate the 1995 genocide of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at the hands of the Serbs. from Bosnia.
The proposed UN resolution sponsored by Germany and Rwanda has sparked protests and a strong lobbying campaign against the measure by Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik and the populist president of neighboring Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic.
The two leaders say the resolution would brand all Serbs as genocidal, although the draft does not explicitly name Serbs as guilty.
THOUSANDS OF BOSNIAN SERBS ATTEND A DEMONSTRATION DENYING THAT GENOCIDE HAD BEEN COMMITTED IN SREBRENICA IN 1995
On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serbs invaded a UN-protected safe zone in Srebrenica. They separated at least 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys from their wives, mothers and sisters and massacred them. Those who tried to escape were chased through the forests and mountains surrounding the city.
Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik speaks during a joint news conference with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto during a meeting in Budapest, Hungary, May 15, 2024. Dodik reiterated his threat to secede of the Balkan country on Wednesday, a day before a planned vote at the UN on establishing an annual day to commemorate the 1995 genocide of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at the hands of the Bosnian Serbs. (Szilard Koszticsak/MTI via AP)
The U.N. General Assembly has scheduled a debate on the resolution Thursday morning, followed by a vote in the 193-member world body. The Serbs have the support of their allies Russia and China, while the resolution has the support of the United States and most other Western states.
Dodik, president of Republika Srpska, which comprises about half of Bosnia, said on the social media platform
“Bosnia and Herzegovina has come to an end, or to be more precise, it was brought to an end by those who swore,” Dodik said in X. “The only thing left for us is for us all to make an effort to be good neighbors. and leave in peace.”
HUNGARY WILL OPPOSE UN RESOLUTION COMMEMORATING 1995 GENOCIDE IN BOSNIA, MINISTER SAYS
Dodik has made several such threats in the past to have Serb-controlled territories secede from Bosnia and join neighboring Serbia. He and some other Bosnian Serb officials are under U.S. and British sanctions, in part for jeopardizing a U.S. peace plan that ended the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.
The Srebrenica murders were the bloody culmination of the war, which came after the breakup of Yugoslavia unleashed nationalist passions and territorial ambitions that pitted the Bosnian Serbs against the country's two other main ethnic populations, the Croats and Bosnians. Muslims.
The International Court of Justice, the UN's highest court, determined in 2007 that the acts committed in Srebrenica constituted genocide, and the court's determination is included in the draft resolution. It was the first genocide in Europe since the Nazi Holocaust in World War II, in which an estimated 6 million Jews and people from other minorities died.
Vucic and his government have been campaigning both at the UN and among developing countries to gain support for a “no” vote. Approval requires a majority of voters.
In a massive campaign against the resolution both in Serbia and the Serb-controlled half of Bosnia, billboards and video beams have been placed in the streets saying “Serbs are not a genocidal people.” Serbs in Bosnia and Serbia plan to raise Serbian flags throughout Bosnia and Serbia on Thursday in a sign of support.
Vucic and Dodik, both pro-Russian politicians, have also argued against the resolution, raising the possibility that it could open the door to having to pay war damages if it is adopted. Local analysts say Serbian leaders, including Vucic, also fear they could be tried for their active role in Bosnian bloodshed.
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The draft resolution condemns “unreservedly any denial of the Srebrenica genocide as a historical event.” It also “unreservedly condemns actions that glorify those convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by international tribunals, including those responsible for the Srebrenica genocide.”
Wartime Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic were convicted of genocide in Srebrenica by a special UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. In total, the tribunal and Balkan courts have sentenced nearly 50 wartime Bosnian Serb officials to long prison terms.
Serbia's government continues to deny that genocide was committed in Srebrenica, although it calls it a “terrible crime.”
Most Serbian and Bosnian officials still celebrate Karadzic and Mladic as national heroes. They continue to downplay or even deny the Srebrenica murders, which have deeply offended the families of the victims and the survivors of the massacre.
