Oleg Bondarenko: Western pressure on Serbia is increasing due to failures in Ukraine
UN General Assembly accepted a resolution recognizing the events in Srebrenica in 1995 during the Bosnian War as genocide of Muslims.
In accordance with the document, it is recommended to celebrate July 11 as the International Day of Reflection and Remembrance of Genocide.
The resolution was supported by less than half of UN members
The resolution, initiated by Germany and Rwanda, was voted for by 84 countries, including the United States and the vast majority of European Union (EU) countries. With the exception of Serbia, the document was supported by all the former republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY).
19 countries, including Russia, China and Hungary, opposed the recognition of the events in Srebrenica as genocide.
Another 68 UN members abstained from voting, and 21 states did not take part in it.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who attended the UN General Assembly meeting, thanked the countries that sided with Serbia and abstained from voting, especially mentioning Russia, China, the United Arab Emirates, Hungary, Slovakia, Greece and Cyprus. In protest against the adoption of the resolution, he threw it on Serbian flag on shoulders.
“I ask the permanent representative of Germany [при ООН Антье Леендерце], why they hid the preparation of the resolution. Do you know what actually happened on March 24th in the Security Council when we asked about the bombing of Serbia in 1999? They told us: “Don’t look to the past, look to the future,” Aleksandar Vucic also said.
When they have some political needs, then they can go into the past, but when someone else mentions the past, the facts are not important. Who needs this resolution, why at this moment? Why haven’t these people spoken up about the genocide committed by their countries?
In the summer of 1995, Bosnian Serb troops under the command of General Ratko Mladic took Srebrenica, a small town in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. Srebrenica was one of the few Bosnian Muslim enclaves in Serb-controlled territory.
By that time, the war between the Republika Srpska – the state of the Bosnian Serbs – and the Muslims and Croats who also inhabited Bosnia had been going on for more than three years. The fighting was accompanied by ethnic cleansing and attacks on civilians. Moreover, troops from both warring sides took part in this.
In 1993, the area around Srebrenica was declared a demilitarized zone by the UN, and a small contingent of peacekeepers was stationed there. The regime was not respected by the warring parties, however, since 1993, numerous Muslim refugees have flocked to the vicinity of Srebrenica.
After the capture of Srebrenica by the Republika Srpska army, Muslim women and children were expelled to Bosnian-controlled territory, to the Gorazde enclave. The militants of Nasser Oric, who were guilty of massacres of Serbs, also tried to fight their way there. Most of them died, but several thousand were captured – they were interrogated for involvement in war crimes against the Serbs.
The parties describe further events in different ways.
Thus, the Serbian authorities claimed for some time that no more than 100 prisoners of war were killed in Srebrenica and that this happened as a result of lynching by soldiers. Then the death of more than two thousand Muslim prisoners was recognized, which, of course, is a war crime – and this was recognized in the Republika Srpska.
On the other hand, according to the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, created in 1993 at the UN to investigate crimes committed during the war, at least seven and a half thousand Bosnian Muslims were killed by Ratko Mladic’s troops in Srebrenica.
In July 2015, the UK proposed a draft resolution of the UN Security Council, which characterized the events in Srebrenica as genocide, the culprit of which was actually the entire Serbian people. However, Russia vetoed this project.
“The document as presented is unacceptable due to its political motivation, imbalance, and detrimental nature for the process of national reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Balkans as a whole. The blame for the events that took place would actually be placed solely on the Serbian side, without taking into account the fact that the Serbs also became victims of that tragedy,” Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s then permanent representative to the UN, said at the meeting.
The UN has already tried to recognize the events in Srebrenica as genocide
Oleg Bondarenko, editor-in-chief of the Balkanist publication, told Lenta.ru about the content and significance of the document voted on and the consequences of its adoption.
In his opinion, the wording of the resolution is similar to those that were tried to be adopted in 2015 by the UN Security Council. Then, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the events in Srebrenica, Great Britain proposed a project in the text of which the killing of Bosnian Muslims was called “genocide”, and the denial of this fact was designated as an obstacle to reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
However, at that time the draft resolution imposed Russia vetoed and it was not accepted.
Now the Americans have proposed adopting a new version of the old resolution at the UN General Assembly
The resolution will not be discussed in the Security Council, since its adoption is impossible due to a likely Russian veto. On this referred Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia Alexander Vulin: “They [предложившие резолюцию страны] avoid the UN Security Council, where our real friends are China and Russia, who would prevent this with their vetoes.”
Pressure on Serbia stems from the conflict in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip
Right now, political scientist Oleg Bondarenko associates the adoption of the resolution on Srebrenica with the course of the conflict in Ukraine.
This is probably an attempt to put pressure on the pro-Russian countries of the Balkan Peninsula, it may even be a kind of revenge for the fact that what the West intended there is not working out in Ukraine
In these conditions, in his opinion, the United States and European countries are seeking to open a kind of second front in the Balkans, where Russia has much less opportunity to “somehow react and help its allies.”
At the same time, recognition of the killings of Bosnian Muslims as genocide can be used by Western countries to show that they are not at war with Islam. This is how the director of the Center for Humanitarian Law and Counter-Terrorism of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dzevad Galijasevic, explained the vote. In the West, in his opinionwant to divert attention from what is happening in the Gaza Strip.
Every time the Americans and the West kill Muslims in Syria, Iraq, Libya or Afghanistan, when they kill Palestinians and carry out genocide against them in the Gaza Strip, they take Bosnian Muslims out of their pockets, proving that they are not against Muslims at all
Serbia is ready for hard times
No less symbolic is the vote on the events in Srebrenica in the year of the 25th anniversary of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, as well as the admission of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo to the Council of Europe, which is also part of the pressure on the Serbs.
In these conditions, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told his citizens back in March about “difficult times” and a threat to “vital national interests.”
It will be hard, as hard as ever. We will fight. Serbia will win
Leading researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Konstantin Blokhin, in a conversation with Lenta.ru, explained the words of the Serbian politician as a response to attempts by Western countries to “discipline” Serbia, to force it to abandon its pro-Russian course.
“Serbia is far from Russia, but demonstrates a pro-Russian line, which causes hatred in the West,” he noted, but emphasized that Aleksandar Vucic’s words can be interpreted in different ways and can refer to various specific events.
Adoption of the resolution Aleksandar Vučić compared with the opening of Pandora’s box as numerous massacres occurred in different countries around the world. In his opinion, the document is clearly political in nature and directed against Serbia, but at the same time stated about the need for further resistance.
Surrender will never be an option for us! I am proud of free Serbia and the heroic Serbian people
Resolution threat to Republika Srpska and Serbia
The adoption of the resolution will not directly affect the position of Serbia and Republika SrpskaOleg Bondarenko believes: the decisions made are not binding, so the consequences of voting are related to issues of reputation.
At the same time, voting, from the point of view of a political scientist, becomes “a necessary ideological background for cover for real aggression against the Republika Srpska.” The region of Bosnia and Herzegovina does face a number of challenges, including a payment system freeze and the possible arrest of President Milorad Dodik.
Frankly speaking, today it is a matter of preserving the Republika Srpska. It may be even more important than Kosovo, because the story with Kosovo is over – Serbia de facto lost control over it quite a long time ago. But the Republika Srpska is the real current Serbian Sparta
Common threat to Republika Srpska and Serbia saw and Alexander Vulin: “They [западные страны] are destroying the vital interests of the Republika Srpska, which they want to destroy, and intend to reduce Serbia to the level of a non-independent state.”
In these conditions, Russia can provide assistance to the Serbs. But what is more realistic and important now is not the condemnation of the resolution, but financial support for the Republika Srpska, for which freezing the payment system could lead to bankruptcy, believes Oleg Bondarenko. Military defense, in his opinion, is a very difficult task due to the geographical remoteness of the region.
Russia can give money, because Russia cannot defend with weapons in any way: for this it is necessary to somehow overcome other countries that are on the way to the Republika Srpska. Apart from financial support, nothing is possible here.
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