Serbia under domestic and international pressure over denial of the Srebrenica genocide

(Patria) - In the cemetery of the Potočari Memorial Centre, 33 Srebrenica victims were buried today, killed during the attack by Serbian forces on the UN safe zone in Srebrenica in July 1995.

The youngest victim buried this year is Osman Cvrk, who was killed when he was 16 years old. The oldest victim is Šaha Cvrk, who was 81 years old. 

In the cemetery of the Potočari Memorial Centre, 6,610 Bosniak victims of Srebrenica have been buried to date. The remains of more than a thousand missing persons are still being sought, while families do not wish to bury around 800 of them because only one or a few bones of the victim have been found and identified. 

In just a few days in July 1995, Serbian forces killed more than 8,000 Bosniaks, and among the victims were men, women and children.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia declared the crime in Srebrenica a genocide, for which the military and political leaders of the Bosnian Serbs were punished. However, to this day, the authorities in that BiH entity, as well as the authorities in neighbouring Serbia, deny the rulings of the UN court, while BiH Presidency member Milorad Dodik called the genocide in Srebrenica a Bosniak myth.

The denial of the Srebrenica genocide today is causing increasing pressure from the international community not only on the leaders of the Serbs in BiH, but also on Serbia itself.

The High Representative of the international community in BiH, Valentin Inzko, at the commemoration of the 24th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, said that he would advocate for the adoption of a law banning the denial of genocide in BiH. 

High Representative and Vice-President Federica Mogherini and Commissioner Johannes Hahn, on the occasion of the commemoration in Srebrenica on the 24th anniversary, issued a joint statement in which they said that there is no place for inflammatory rhetoric, denial, revisionism or glorification of war criminals. 

Numerous world figures have sided with the victims of Srebrenica, while world powers such as the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and others mark the anniversary of this genocide in their parliaments.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on the occasion of the 24th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, stated that the USA stands with the people of BiH in remembering the fallen and reaffirms its commitment to building peace and prosperity throughout the region. 

„This painful chapter in Europe's history must never be denied nor forgotten,“ Pompeo said.

Serbia's European future has also been called into question due to the denial of the Srebrenica genocide. The European Parliament recently adopted a Resolution demanding that Serbia, before becoming an EU member, must stop denying the Srebrenica genocide.

Numerous non-governmental organisations in Serbia marked the anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide on Thursday. The Youth Initiative for Human Rights held a commemorative gathering for the victims of the genocide in the park near the Presidency of Serbia in Belgrade, attended by US Ambassador Kyle Scott, Norwegian Ambassador Arne Sannes Bjørnstad, German Ambassador Thomas Schieb, Italian Ambassador Carlo Lo Cascio, as well as representatives of several organisations and public figures.

Representatives of the Youth Initiative on Thursday unfurled a banner in the park with the inscription "Too young to remember, determined never to forget".

Čedomir Jovanović, leader of the LDP, one of the few Serbian politicians who goes to Potočari on 11 July and publicly states that genocide was committed in Srebrenica, said that Srebrenica increasingly torments Serbia and Serbs, while Bosniaks, with the support of the world, are increasingly finding their peace. 

„Serbia must open its eyes, must be brave, must admit and take its share of responsibility for the genocide in Srebrenica, because such a Serbia is needed by Serbs, Bosniaks, Croats in Serbia, Bosnia and the entire region. For 24 years it has been looking at the world with one eye, but in fact it is blind,“ Jovanović emphasised.