SARAJEVO: The parliament of Bosnia´s autonomous Serb Republic adopted a report on Thursday stating that the killing of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica during the Bosnian war did not constitute genocide, contravening the rulings of international courts.
The massacre in 1995, which happened in the week after the UN safe zone of Srebrenica was attacked by the Bosnian Serb forces, was seen as Europe’s worst atrocity since World War Two.
The parliamentary step came as Serbia and the Serb Republic campaign against a resolution to commemorate the Srebrenica genocide that is being debated in the United Nations and should be voted on in the General Assembly in early May.
“Genocide did not happen, such a qualification must be dismissed,” Serb Republic nationalist President Milorad Dodik told the lawmakers. “The Serb people did not commit genocide.”
Serbia´s President Aleksandar Vucic said last week that Serbia will fight against the adoption of the UN resolution which would put blame on Serbs, fearing it may form a basis for Bosnia to demand war reparations from Serbia, the Bosnian Serbs´ wartime ally.
Authorities in the Serb Republic also called on the citizens to attend a mass meeting in the region´s de facto capital of Banja Luka later on Thursday to protest against the UN resolution, which they said they will never accept.
The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) established in a series of verdicts over the past two decades that the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica constituted genocide.