SREBRENICA, the name still haunts all good people with any sense of morality, any idea of right and wrong, Christians who know the teachings of Jesus Christ do not condone the actions of the serbian "christians" who slaughtered thousands of Bosnian Muslims in 1995. It should haunt the Dutch "peacekeepers" who were supposed to protect all who were in the safe haven of Srebrenica. Europe and NATO should be ashamed for this ever happening, and the European Union and democratic world should be prepared to prevent genocide anywhere the risk exist. It is no surprise russia vetoed the U.N. Security Council resolution declaring the massacre at Srebrenica as genocide, the russian federation has lost it's moral compass with putin as it's leader, and he is guiding the nation into the darkness of immorality, tyranny, oppression, and fear. How very sad the once proud russian people are willingly following putin to their own demise. This from +NPR & +ABC News .....
At a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the massacre of
Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica by Christian Serbs, the crowd turned its
anger at the 1995 genocide against Serbia's prime minister, driving him
from the event with rocks and bottles.
Aleksandar Vucic was one of several foreign dignitaries, including
former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu, Britain's Princess Anne and Jordon's Queen Noor, who attended
the event at the Potocari memorial complex to remember the massacre of
8,000 Muslim men and boys, a crime later designated as genocide by
international courts.
A spokeswoman for Vucic is quoted by The Associated Press as saying the premier, who apparently fled the stadium, was hit in the face with a stone and had broken his glasses.
At the time of the genocide, Vucic had been secretary-general of the far-right nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS), which openly pushed the campaign of terror against Bosnia's Muslims.
The AP reports:
The Guardian writes: "The only survivors were those who hid under dead bodies and crept away, once night had fallen. Later the killers returned to dig up bodies from the mass graves and scatter them in an effort to hide their crime. To this day, forensic experts are still identifying human remains, pieces of limbs and skulls, and Bosnian families struggle to come to terms with their loss."
Foreign Policy calls Srebrenica "the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II, one that occurred while U.N. peacekeepers stood by fecklessly and NATO refused to intervene."
FP says: "Srebrenica became a brutal symbol of the price of inaction. Had the United States and its allies intervened sooner, the tragedy could have been prevented. As a stunningly self-critical 1999 report by then-U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan concluded, "The cardinal lesson of Srebrenica is that a deliberate and systematic attempt to terrorize, expel or murder an entire people must be met decisively with all necessary means."
Earlier this week, long-time Serbian ally Russia voted against a U.N. Security Council resolution to recognize Srebrenica as a "crime of genocide."
A woman weeps as she visits the grave of a family member
killed in the 1995 massacre at the Potocari memorial complex near
Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on Saturday.
Marko Drobnjakovic/AP
Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia's prime minister, center, is seen
during a scuffle at the Potocari memorial complex near Srebrenica,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, on Saturday. Vucic was attending a ceremony to
mark two decades since the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys
by Bosnian Serbs.
Marko Drobnjakovic/AP
A spokeswoman for Vucic is quoted by The Associated Press as saying the premier, who apparently fled the stadium, was hit in the face with a stone and had broken his glasses.
At the time of the genocide, Vucic had been secretary-general of the far-right nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS), which openly pushed the campaign of terror against Bosnia's Muslims.
The AP reports:
The events in Srebrenica of 11-14 July 1995 occurred in an area designated a "safe haven" for refugees by United Nations peacekeeping troops who ultimately failed to defend it."As Vucic entered the cemetery to lay flowers, thousands booed and whistled. A group of women from Belgrade, Serbia, who for years [have been] demanding Serbia to admit [its] role in the slaughter, yelled "responsibility!" and "genocide!"
"Someone threw a shoe at him, others threw water bottles and other objects. The crowd eventually chased Vucic away from the ceremony. A few people carried banners with his own wartime quote: 'For every killed Serb, we will kill 100 Bosniaks.' "
The Guardian writes: "The only survivors were those who hid under dead bodies and crept away, once night had fallen. Later the killers returned to dig up bodies from the mass graves and scatter them in an effort to hide their crime. To this day, forensic experts are still identifying human remains, pieces of limbs and skulls, and Bosnian families struggle to come to terms with their loss."
Foreign Policy calls Srebrenica "the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II, one that occurred while U.N. peacekeepers stood by fecklessly and NATO refused to intervene."
FP says: "Srebrenica became a brutal symbol of the price of inaction. Had the United States and its allies intervened sooner, the tragedy could have been prevented. As a stunningly self-critical 1999 report by then-U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan concluded, "The cardinal lesson of Srebrenica is that a deliberate and systematic attempt to terrorize, expel or murder an entire people must be met decisively with all necessary means."
Earlier this week, long-time Serbian ally Russia voted against a U.N. Security Council resolution to recognize Srebrenica as a "crime of genocide."
Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution Wednesday that would have condemned the
1995 massacre of Muslims at Srebrenica during the Bosnian war as a
"crime of genocide," saying that singling out the Bosnian Serbs for a
war crime would create greater division in the Balkans.
Two international courts have called the slaughter by Bosnian Serbs of
some 8,000 Muslim men and boys who had sought refuge at what was
supposed to be a U.N.-protected site genocide.
But Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin objected to focusing only on
Srebrenica, calling the resolution "confrontational and politically
motivated" and stressing that Bosnian Serbs and Croats had also suffered
during the 1992-95 war that killed at least 100,000 people.
Britain drafted the resolution to mark the 20th anniversary of the
Srebrenica massacre on Tuesday, but the vote was delayed to address
Russian concerns.
The defeated resolution states that acceptance of "the tragic events at
Srebrenica as genocide is a prerequisite for reconciliation" and
"condemns denial of this genocide as hindering efforts towards
reconciliation."
Britain's U.N. deputy ambassador Peter Wilson stressed that the
resolution "did not point fingers of blame, score political points nor
seek to reopen political divisions." It also didn't link the crimes at
Srebrenica to the Serb people and recognized there were victims on all
sides, he said.
The vote was 10 countries in favor, Russia casting a veto, and four abstentions — China, Nigeria, Angola and Venezuela.
Leaders of the Bosnian Serbs and Serbia, who have close religious and cultural ties to Russia, have lobbied President Vladimir Putin to vote "no.'
Serbia's pro-Russian President Tomislav Nikolic said Russia's veto "not
only prevented the throwing of guilt against the whole Serbian nation,
trying to show it as genocidal, but it also proved that Russia is a real
and sincere friend."
Wilson said Britain was "outraged" by Russia's veto.
"Russia's actions tarnish the memory of all those who died in the
Srebrenica genocide," he said. "Russia will have to justify its behavior
to the families of over 8,000 people murdered in the worst atrocity in
Europe since the Second World War."
Bosnians reacted bitterly to the veto.
"This is a defeat of justice," said Camil Durakovic, the mayor of
Srebrenica. "The world has lost. The world — and especially Serbia —
will have to face the truth sooner or later," he said.
Fadila Efendic, a Srebrenica woman who lost her son and husband in the
Srebrenica massacre, called the veto "another humiliation of the
victims."
"Today's vote mattered," said U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power, who was a
24-year-old journalist in Bosnia at the time of the Srebrenica massacre.
"It mattered hugely to the families of the victims of the Srebrenica
genocide. Russia's veto is heartbreaking for those families, and it is a
further stain on this council's record."
Russia's Churkin began his speech before the vote asking for a minute of
silence in memory of the victims of Srebrenica and everyone in the Security Council stood, many bowing their heads.
Instead of Srebrenica, he said the council should commemorate the 20th
anniversary of the 1995 peace agreement signed in Dayton, Ohio that
ended the Bosnian war later this year, and make every effort to
implement it and normalize relations in the Balkans.
"Our vote against ... will, however, not mean that we are deaf to the suffering of victims of Srebrenica and other areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina," Churkin said.
———
Associated Press writers Aida Cerkez in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade contributed to this report.
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