U.N. resolution to commemorate Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia sparks opposition from Serbs

UN resolution establishes annual day to commemorate Srebrenica genocide, sparking protests and lobbying campaign against adoption

A U.N. resolution sponsored by Germany and Rwanda to establish an annual day to commemorate the 1995 genocide of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims by Bosnian Serbs has sparked protests and a strong lobbying campaign against its adoption by Serbia's President and the Bosnian Serb leadership.

The U.N. General Assembly has scheduled a debate on the resolution on the morning of May 23 to be followed by a vote in the 193-member world body.

The final draft of the resolution would designate July 11 as the “International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenca,” to be observed annually starting in two months. The massacres started on July 11, 1995.

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The draft asks the United Nations to prepare an outreach programme and invites countries, organisations, civil society and others to observe the day with special observances and activities in memory and honour of the victims as well as “appropriate education and public awareness-raising activities”.

The Srebrenica killings were the bloody crescendo of Bosnia's 1992-95 war, which came after the breakup of Yugoslavia unleashed nationalist passions and territorial ambitions that set Bosnian Serbs against the country's two other main ethnic populations, Croats and Muslim Bosniaks.

On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serbs overran a UN-protected safe area in Srebrenica. They separated at least 8,000 Muslim Bosniak men and boys from their wives, mothers and sisters and slaughtered them. Those who tried to escape were chased through the woods and over the mountains around the ill-fated town.