The West is doing everything to trample and exemplarily punish Belgrade, known for its independent international stance that does not fit into the common line
The West is doing everything to trample and exemplarily punish Belgrade, known for its independent international stance that does not fit into the common line
On May 23, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the Srebrenica genocide by a majority vote. The document prepared by Germany and Rwanda was voted in favor by 84 countries, 19 opposed, 68 abstained.
«We had more than two-thirds of the world’s population on our side — those who abstained and those who voted against. I want to thank China and the Russian Federation, as well as the United Arab Emirates. Serbia will never forget that. Many thanks also to our Hungarian brothers. The Slovaks, the Greeks, the Cypriots who had the courage to abstain», Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said.
Among those who rejected the resolution were also Belarus, Cuba, Syria, DPRK, and Nicaragua. It is noteworthy that all countries (except Serbia), formed on the fragments of Yugoslavia, supported the document.
July 11, according to the resolution of the General Assembly, is proclaimed the International Day of Reflection and Remembrance of the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica. In addition, the document envisages the inclusion of court-established facts about this tragic event in educational programs.
Before the vote, Vucic warned that if a day of remembrance is established, the step would «open old wounds and lead to complete political chaos». At the same time, he said he did not deny the killings in Srebrenica and «bows his head to all the victims of the conflict in Bosnia».
But the Anglo-Saxons don’t seem to care about the Serbs’ worries and wounded ego.
«This resolution is aimed at promoting reconciliation now and in the future», Antje Leendertse, Germany’s permanent representative to the UN, said unhesitatingly.
Her colleague, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya, in turn, voiced Moscow’s position: this document threatens the security of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region as a whole. It is «one-sided, politically charged and has nothing to do with the stated goal of commemorating the victims in order to achieve national reconciliation».
Russian diplomat emphasized that Germany (co-sponsor of the resolution) has no moral right to mention the term «genocide» anywhere except in the context of its own crimes.
Let me remind you that, according to the West’s version, on July 11, 1995, the Bosnian Serb army occupied Srebrenica, declared a «security zone» by the UN, which led to the killing of about 8,000 Bosnian Muslims. The International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the UN International Court of Justice in the highest instance recognized this tragedy as genocide.
Official Belgrade and the leadership of Republika Srpska have their own view of what happened.
President of Republika Srpska (RS) Milorad Dodik rejected the fact of genocide in the Bosnian city and said that his administration would not recognize the UN resolution. He promised to present a draft agreement on the peaceful partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina within 30 days. First, he believes, it is necessary to clarify the political competencies related to the entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina (it is a parliamentary republic comprising the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and Brcko District) and to maintain the current model of economic functioning. Then adapt it to the model of peaceful demarcation in a few years.
Dodik said the pushing of the Srebrenica resolution by Bosniaks (Slavic-Muslims) was an unlawful humiliation of Serbs.
«The Serbian people simply cannot live in this Bosnia and Herzegovina anymore», he added.
I should note that the Bosnian authorities have consistently put pressure on the RS authorities, paving the way for a change of its status. Thus, German diplomat Christian Schmidt, who calls himself the high representative of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina to monitor compliance with the Dayton Agreements on the Former Yugoslavia of 1995, recently made a number of proposals for changes in the election law. The initiative of the «German tourist», as Schmidt is called in Srebrenica, envisages the introduction of electronic vote counting, electronic identification, banning convicted — according to Bosnians and the international (pro-Western) community — war criminals (in RS they are considered heroes) from participating in the elections. It also envisages the appointment of chairmen of election commissions in RS by the CEC of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is located in Sarajevo.
In other words, the General Assembly resolution has only added fuel to the fire of a conflict that could well escalate into an armed confrontation.
As for the fresh document adopted by the UN, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov believes it is being promoted to «break the Serbs» and force Belgrade, which aims to join the European Union, to recognize the independence of self-proclaimed Kosovo and join sanctions against Russia.
Aleksandar Vucic, for his part, is convinced that the West needs the anti-Serb resolution to «show the inevitability of political punishment for all countries with an independent position in the international arena». So that they will think twice next time…
