Russia threatens veto on UN vote calling Srebrenica 'a crime of genocide'

[geek tragedy]

Source: The Guardian

The UN security council has delayed a vote on a British-drafted resolution that would condemn the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica during the Bosnian war as “a crime of genocide” after Russia informed council members it would veto the measure.

Supporters of the resolution had been hoping for its unanimous approval on Wednesday to mark the 20th anniversary of the slaughter by Bosnian Serbs of 8,000 Muslim men and boys who had sought refuge at what was supposed to be a UN-protected site. But leaders of the Bosnian Serbs and Serbia, who have close religious and cultural ties to Russia, have lobbied President Vladimir Putin to vote against it.


Russia has circulated a rival draft resolution which does not mention either Srebrenica or genocide, but no vote has been scheduled on it. Last week, Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Petr Iliichev called the British draft “divisive”, saying the Russian draft was “more general, more reconciling”.

Britain’s UN ambassador, Matthew Rycroft, said in a letter on 2 July to Mladen Ivanic, the Serb member and chair of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, that the international criminal tribunal for former Yugoslavia in 2004 and the international court of justice in 2007 determined the mass killings at Srebrenica were an act of genocide.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/08/russia-threatens-veto-on-un-vote-calling-srebrenica-a-of-genocide

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If Putin had been in power during the Clinton administration, who knows how many more Bosnians would have been butchered?

[Hydra]

1. Putin isn't going anywhere

He's likely to get more blood on his hands before he kicks the bucket.

No surprise he and GWB saw eye to eye.

[newthinking]

2. The civil war itself was complicated by ethnic/religious division. As can

often be the case, there were atrocities on both sides.

Of course this is a war atrocity. But so were the massive killings that the Srebenica Muslims executed against neighboring serbian (mostly Christian) villages. There could be an argument that was also genocide if using this same definition.

Our geopolitics likes to try and make war look "cleaner" than it is. The lesson we should learn is not to find the "better guys", but to get at the roots of conflict and find better ways to avoid and resolve them.

If people want to get deeper into what occurred for their own understanding there is a good investigative documentary by a dutch journalist that goes through the events and the massacre. It has it's own interpretation that I can't vouch for, but it does include a lot of eye witness information and shows the complexity of what happened.

The film includes translation.

[Sunlei]

3. another huge 'diplomatic mistake' by Putin's Russia over wording in a resolution.

[Igel]

4. Putin's claim that there is no collective guilt sounds odd.

I'm sure he believes it for himself and his allies.

For others, I'm not so sure. Well, that's not true. I am sure. I think he firmly believes that there is collective guilt for those who oppose his goals.