Jovanović in Serbian Assembly speaks about consequences of not recognising the Srebrenica genocide

BELGRADE, (Patria) - President of the LDP and MP in the National Assembly of Serbia Čedomir Jovanović said on Friday at the Assembly session in Belgrade that the European Parliament resolution on Serbia recognising the Srebrenica genocide before EU accession was expected and the only logical consequence after Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić gave an interview to Deutsche Welle.

Brnabić stated in the DW programme: „I do not think it was genocide. I think it was… you know, I think it was a terrible, terrible crime, but genocide is essentially when… genocide is when you kill an entire population, women, children, and that was not the case here.“ 

Following this, within the framework of the debate on the Serbia Progress Report, MEPs adopted an amendment on Srebrenica by Slovenian MEP Igor Šoltes.

„Parliament regrets the repeated denial of the Srebrenica genocide by some Serbian officials; reminds them that full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and the mechanism that succeeded it, also includes full acceptance and implementation of its judgments and decisions; stresses that recognition of the Srebrenica genocide is a fundamental step on Serbia's path to EU accession“ states the adopted Šoltes amendment.

Jovanović said that the idea of any politician arbitrating whether Srebrenica was genocide or not is unacceptable to him. 

„It is. Full stop. And nothing will change by our denial of all that, except that we will once again give new arguments to the world that the problem of Serbs was not in Milošević, Karadžić and Mladić, but that it is much deeper“, said Jovanović.

„Serbia is not responsible for that genocide. That verdict was rendered by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the same one before which we sought justice for Kosovo. But Serbia was found responsible because it did not prevent the genocide. And we are responsible. Our army, police, security structures knew what was happening that July in Bosnia; from Bihać to Srebrenica. We are also responsible because we did not sanction those who committed the genocide, we protected them, and because we nurture that culture of genocide denial“, added Jovanović.

The LDP leader said that in the case of the Srebrenica genocide, it is not about the responsibility of the Serbian people, but about the responsibility of a policy, which, as he pointed out, includes „the generals who fought, the politicians who formulated that policy, the intellectuals who gave it a non-existent meaning, and the priests who censed and saw off the Škorpions as they went to new massacres.“

„That verdict is intended for them, not for my children, and others“, he said.

„Where will you go to Europe when Europe has 365 days, and one day dedicated to the victims of the Srebrenica genocide. Let's go to Myanmar then, let's go to the Taliban, that doesn't apply there“, Jovanović criticised, as reported by Patria.