Bosnian Serbs Urge U.N. to Reject Srebrenica Resolution
The ethnic Serb chairman of Bosnia's rotating presidency on Monday urged the U.N. to not adopt a resolution on the Srebrenica genocide, saying it would destabilize the country already split along ethnic lines.
"I must warn you that the current (inter-ethnic) situation is bad and call on you to recognize that the adoption of this resolution would not be a good thing for the stability of Bosnia," Mladen Ivanic wrote in a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The resolution is being drafted by Britain to mark the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre in July, and reflects on the U.N.'s failure to prevent genocide.
About 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were slaughtered by ethnic Serb forces in July 1995 in the then U.N.-protected enclave.
It was Europe's worst atrocity since World War II and has been labeled genocide by two international courts.
Ivanic, said that the presidency's three members -- Croat, Muslim and Serb -- could not reach a consensus on the resolution.
"Bosnian Serbs are convinced that this resolution is anti-Serb because it fails to mention in any way the Serb victims in the Srebrenica region," he wrote in the letter.
"Its possible adoption would not have a positive effect but would instead further split Bosnia's society."
Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik recently asked Russia to use its veto to prevent the adoption of the resolution.
According to diplomats at the British mission to the United Nations, the resolution would "commemorate the victims of the genocide at Srebrenica, and those who suffered on all sides in the war."
The draft resolution was expected to come up for a vote during the first week of July as Bosnia prepares to hold commemorations at the Srebrenica memorial on July 11.
Bosnian Serbs refuse to accept that the massacre was genocide.
Bosnia's 1992-1995 war claimed some 100,000 lives and left the country split into two-semi independent entities -- the Serbs Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation.
The two are linked by weak central institutions including the presidency.
Source: Agence France Presse
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