United Nations: Britain is drafting a UN Security Council resolution to mark the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre and reflect on the UN's failure to prevent genocide.
About 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were slaughtered in July 1995 in the UN-protected enclave of Srebrenica in Europe's worst atrocity since World War II. "The UK is leading on the drafting of a UN Security Council resolution to mark the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica," a spokesperson at the British mission to the United Nations said on Wednesday.
"The exact content is still under discussion with partners, but we expect that it will commemorate the victims of the genocide at Srebrenica, and those who suffered on all sides in the war, and that it will encourage further steps towards reconciliation."
"This is also an occasion for the international community to reflect on the lessons learned from one of the darkest moments in UN history and reaffirm our determination to prevent genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes," the spokesperson said.
The draft resolution is 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 Serb forces commanded by General Ratko Mladic overran Srebrenica on July 11 in what was to become one of the darkest chapters of the 1992-95 Bosnian war. Dutch UN peacekeepers bowed to pressure from Mladic and forced thousands of Muslim families out of their protected compound. Bosnian Serb forces loaded men and boys onto trucks and later executed them in what international courts have ruled was a genocide.
Mladic is on trial before an international court in The Hague on 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war that left 100,000 dead. The Dutch government last year said it would pay the families of Srebrenica victims 20,000 euros each in compensation, after a civil court ruling that the state was indeed liable for the deaths.
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