A Resolution that revives pain and incites tensions among communities

Today is a sad day for peace and reconciliation in the Balkans. While the war is raging again in Eastern Europe, the West and its allies are reopening the wounds of the past in Bosnia and Herzegovina through a controversial resolution, which will be voted on today under strong political pressure at the United Nations Assembly.

Taking us back 29 years, this resolution stirs up the still smoldering embers of the terrible civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995), which left nearly 100,000 dead. By proclaiming 11 July as the “International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the Srebrenica Genocide committed in 1995” and by counting only Bosniak victims, this resolution deliberately ignores the Serb victims who were coldly murdered in the various massacres committed in this same region of Srebrenica.

This resolution submitted to the UN by Germany and Rwanda thus creates a hierarchy amongst the victims and revitalizes endemic racism that was thought to have disappeared in Europe since 1945.

Don't all the families of innocent victims deserve to be treated with the same compassion? How could the countries that supported this resolution ignore the victims of the “Kravica massacre" committed on Christmas Day in 1993 in this small hamlet of Srebrenica? 50 Serb civilian women, children and men had been massacred there with cold weapons, with many people having been beheaded, their eyes previously gouged out.

In Serbia we believe that every victim, regardless of their origin or religion, deserves respect, whether they are called Marija, Samir or Hrvoje. We consider that the 60,000 Bosniak victims, the 30,000 Serb victims and the 8,000 Croat victims of this terrible war deserve to be treated with the same respect.

By deliberately ignoring Orthodox Serb and Catholic Croat victims, this resolution revives sorrows and increases tensions between communities. At a time when the political leaders in Sarajevo are systematically questioning the Dayton agreements, which guarantee peace and security for all in Bosnia, this resolution further reinforces the antagonisms.

It is time to return to reason, to respect international law and to leave the past in the past in order to be able to build a common future. As the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić recalled in a recent statement “our duty is to allow peace to triumph”.

Finally. 

Written by Arnaud Gouillon, Director of the Office for Cooperation with the Diaspora and the Serbs in the Region of the Government of Serbia