A UN resolution on the Srebrenica genocide ignites old tensions

Leaders from Serbia and Bosnia’s Republika Srpska have been campaigning against the adoption of a UN resolution commemorating the Srebrenica genocide.

A resolution for the United Nations to mark July 11 as an international day of commemoration for the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica is expected to take place on Wednesday.

It has drawn strong opposition from Serb leaders, with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic saying he will “fight until the last moment”.

The vote in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) had been postponed, according to Zlatko Lagumdzija, permanent representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the UN, following lobbying efforts by Vucic against its adoption in New York.

Initiated by Germany and Rwanda, the resolution has been co-sponsored by more than a dozen countries including the United States, France, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Chile, Ireland and others.

In 2004, the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague ruled that the crimes in Srebrenica in July 1995 committed by Serb forces constituted genocide. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) upheld this ruling in 2007.