The leader of the Bosnian Serb territory reiterated his threat to secede from the Balkan country on Wednesday, a day before a planned UN vote on establishing an annual day to commemorate the killing of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims by the Bosnian Serbs in 1995.
The proposed UN resolution, sponsored by Germany and Rwanda, sparked protests and a strong lobbying campaign against the measure from Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik and Serbia’s populist president neighbor, Aleksandar Vučić.
Both leaders say the resolution would label all Serbs genocidal, although the draft does not explicitly mention Serbs as guilty.
Mr. Dodik has already repeatedly threatened to make the Serb-controlled territories separate from Bosnia and join neighboring Serbia.
He and other Bosnian Serb officials are under U.S. and British sanctions, in part for undermining the U.S. peace plan that ended the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.
Mass protests against the memorial project
Hundreds of people gathered outside Montenegro’s government building to protest the German-Rwanda-sponsored UN resolution to establish an annual day of commemoration of the genocide of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in 1995 by the Bosnian Serbs.
The final version of the resolution would designate July 11 as “International day of reflection and commemoration of the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica“, which would be celebrated every year from two months onwards.
A growing number of South-Eastern European countries are finding themselves embroiled in the dispute over a draft United Nations resolution proclaiming a day of commemoration of the Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The resolution is due to be considered by the United Nations General Assembly on May 23. She faces strong opposition from Serbia, Bosnia’s Republika Srpska and pro-Serb politicians in Montenegro.
In July 1995, more than 8,000 Bosnian men and boys were massacred in Srebrenica by Serbian forces and paramilitary units.
Srebrenica mothers at memorial before UN vote
Mothers of men and boys killed in the Srebrenica genocide laid wreaths and prayed at the graves of their loved ones on Wednesday.
The bereaved mothers were accompanied by Nusrat Ghani, British Minister for European Affairs, and Julian Reilly, British Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Munira Subasic of the Mothers of Srebrenica association said the resolution “means a lot” for those who lost their loved ones in Srebrenica and for truth and justice.