Despite Serbian rage

Srebrenica: UN introduces day of remembrance for genocide

Thousands of people were murdered in Srebrenica.

(Bild: AP ( via APA) Austria Presse Agentur/Armin Durgut)

The genocide of Srebrenica in 1995 will be commemorated worldwide on July 11. Despite a number of votes against and abstentions, the United Nations General Assembly voted in favor of a corresponding draft resolution on a "Day of Reflection and Remembrance" in New York on Thursday.

The resolution is intended to help commemorate the genocide of over 8,000 Bosnian Muslims. It "unreservedly condemns any denial of the Srebrenica genocide as a historical event" and acts that glorify those "convicted by international courts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide". The day is to be officially commemorated for the first time in 2025. 84 UN members voted in favor of the text, including Austria, according to the Foreign Ministry.

19 votes against and many abstentions
In the vote, there were 19 votes against - unusual for unanimous resolutions on commemoration days. In addition to Serbia, China and Russia, Hungary also voted against the text. 68 countries abstained. The Serbian government had protested against the resolution text in advance, saying that it would collectively condemn the Serbian people and create a hierarchy among the victims of the war.

After the vote, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić wrapped himself in the Serbian national flag and posted a photo of himself on Instagram with the words "I am proud of my Serbia". Before the vote, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik once again denied that the massacre in Srebrenica was genocide.

Vučić symbolically wrapped himself in the Serbian national flag.

(Bild: AFP/ANGELA WEISS)

Apart from Serbia, all states that emerged from the former Yugoslavia voted in favor of the resolution. Some EU countries, including Greece, Cyprus and Slovakia, abstained.

Moscow rails against the resolution
Russia's UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzia explained that if the aim of the authors was to divide the General Assembly, "then they have succeeded brilliantly." Moscow had already vetoed a UN Security Council resolution in 2015 condemning the "crime of genocide in Srebrenica".

Genocide established

• Judgments by the War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have legally established the genocidal nature of the Srebrenica massacre.
• The aim of the massacre of thousands of Muslim men and young men and the subsequent deportation of women and children was to make the enclave of Srebrenica "Serbian".

In response to opposition to the project and at the request of Montenegro, the drafters added to the draft resolution that the blame for the Srebrenica genocide "is individual and cannot be attributed to any ethnic, religious or other group or community as a whole".