Greif: One should not play with the term "genocide"; the resolution will not bring reconciliation and unity

The discussion on the Srebrenica resolution in the United Nations General Assembly has been postponed because countries have doubts—and it is good that they doubt, said Gideon Greif, the president of the Independent Commission for the Investigation of the Suffering of All Peoples in the Srebrenica Region from 1992 to 1995, to RTRS, emphasizing that one should not play with the term "genocide."

He stressed that the Srebrenica resolution is not based on facts but on political assumptions and ambitions.

"This is an ugly, disgusting political initiative," Greif stated.

He also pointed out that this initiative will not bring reconciliation and unity to the region but rather the opposite.

"We advocate for morality, for a good future for people. We want people to be happy. Any normal human being wants to live happily on this earth, not to participate in wars. Politicians sometimes want the opposite. This is indeed revenge, and we are against it. Our commission is moral, but politicians are not always moral. On behalf of the 10 members of our commission, I can very clearly say that this initiative will not bring any reconciliation, peace, or unity to the region. On the contrary, it will cause doubts, deepen the conflict and the roots of conflict that have been present in this area for decades or more," Greif said.

The report of his Commission, he points out, is aimed at peace, harmony, and dialogue, whereas the resolution will lead to everything contrary to that.

"The resolution is not based on facts, science, on historical facts, but on political assumptions, ambitions, which is bad if you really want to bring people together around building a better future. That is what we want, but this initiative will lead, I fear, in the other direction and only have bad outcomes, which is really not what this region needs today," Greif explains.

He also noted that between 1.1 and 1.3 million Serbs were exposed to brutal murders and threats of being killed by enemy forces, Muslims, Bosniaks, and others, from 1992 to 1995.

"This is a fact that the UN resolution completely ignores. It is a fact that is not included in the propaganda that we, the members of the Commission, very often hear," he added.

One should not play with the term "genocide," he warns, because it is a scientific term.

"You cannot play with that. It is a scientific term. Raphael Lemkin would turn in his grave if he heard that Srebrenica is defined as genocide. He would say, they are crazy. This is not the case. I did not mean such genocide. Genocide is something else," Greif noted.

He adds that it is very simple to base an opinion on unrealistic, unscientific facts.

"History is a science, and we are all scientists: historians, forensic experts, media experts, and lawyers, of course. Ten top experts, who worked for two years without any interference from the outside, without any instructions from any government, without biases, unfounded assumptions. We worked very objectively, to the extent that objectivity even exists in this world, and I think that our report will one day be considered a pinnacle of work of an international independent commission, like ours," said Greif.

He reminded that in 1948, Raphael Lemkin "coined" the term "genocide," which is defined as "the intentional destruction of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group."

"Genocide has two elements. One is physical, and the other psychological. The destruction of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group as such is the essential characteristic of every genocide, and this was not the case in Srebrenica. On the Serbian side, there was no intent to destroy a significant part relative to the total population," Greif said.

He added that in "this tragic event, less than 0.5 percent of Bosnian Muslims perished."

"So, in any case, this cannot be considered or defined as genocide. Genocide is a crime of a completely different nature. Of course, our commission has written, and I would like to read to you, that, although the commission does not consider the killings around Srebrenica as genocide, it recognizes the fact that thousands of people were killed in the most terrible way and that those responsible for the crime should be punished. So, we were very clear in our Report," Greif concluded.