Srebrenica “Genocide” Resolution in the Serbian Parliament

by Stephen Karganovic of the Srebrenica Historical Project

The Srebrenica Lobby in Serbia has launched a stealth campaign to pressure the Serbian Parliament to adopt a resolution about the “Srebrenica genocide” that allegedly took place in July 1995. The proposed resolution is scheduled to be presented to parliament for a vote in a few days, following a “fast track” procedure designed to be completed in time for this year’s Srebrenica anniversary ceremony on July 11. Obviously, the timing was designed to ensure that maximum emotional pressure is exerted on parliamentary deputies, while giving them a minimum of time to conduct an informed public debate on the issues underlying the Srebrenica controversy.

This year’s resolution proposal is a replay of a similar attempt made in the Serbian parliament 2010, which resulted in only a partial gain for the Lobby. They were frustrated, however, in attaining their central objective of making Serbian parliament declare that what happened in Srebrenica was genocide for which Serbia was bound to suffer grave political, economic, and moral consequences. 

As a result of vociferous public protests and the ensuing debate, once the terms of the proposed resolution in 2010 became widely known, parliament was compelled to strike the word “genocide” from the text and to express itself in more guarded terms concerning that core but very controversial issue. The result did not serve the desired goal of tainting Serbia and the Serbian people with the stigma of genocide, which was the resolution’s political purpose to begin with. The Srebrenica Lobby has apparently reached the conclusion that now the time is ripe to try again. Lessons were learned from the 2010 experience and the plan for the next couple of days in Belgrade is to not give Srebrenica resolution opponents sufficient time to organize or parliamentary deputies who are so inclined a reasonable opportunity to study the matter more closely.

The Srebrenica resolution that is currently being introduced and rammed through the Serbian parliament follows closely the pattern set by Great Britain’s Srebrenica resolution introduced in the UN Security Council last year that was vetoed by Russia. Both put heavy stress on the allegation that what occurred in Srebrenica was genocide and attribute that crime to Serbia and its people.

As we have stressed continuously over the years, Srebrenica genocide has nothing to do with the facts of what actually happened or sympathy for the innocent victims who were executed. It is a thoroughly politicized affair which serves an agenda having nothing in common with the interests of Bosnian Muslims and having everything to do with inciting enmity between the Muslim and Orthodox inhabitants of the Balkans. The objective is to push them into mutually debilitating strife, with the Western-NATO alliance dominating over both in the strategically important Balkans and plundering their resources in the process, while cynically playing one side off against the other. The proposed resolution in the Serbian parliament, classifying Srebrenica as genocide and implying that Serbia (and by extension the Serbian people) played a role in that false flag operation, is part and parcel of this insidious agenda.

The public learned about the proposed resolution only on Wednesday June 29. The matter was deliberately kept under wraps by pro-Western and pro-NATO deputies who are sponsoring it until the last possible moment in order to ensure its stealth passage in parliament. Resolution proponents in Serbia are not interested in a transparent public debate about what really happened in Srebrenica and even less what Serbia allegedly had to do with it. They disregard completely the fact that deputies in parliament are paid their salaries in order to make informed decisions on behalf of their constituents, and should not allow themselves to be manipulated by political pressure.

The corrupt procedure used by the Srebrenica Lobby to push through its resolution raises several important questions. Is it the business of the Serbian parliament to pass politically inspired resolutions about Srebrenica, thus taking the onus for this crime on behalf of the Serbian people as a whole? Is it correct and in line with provable facts to call what happened in Srebrenica a genocide? Is it proper to ambush a country’s parliament on an important issue such as this without allowing sufficient time for a full and unfettered public debate?

In Serbia, exactly the same as everywhere else, the aggressive Srebrenica Lobby is unconcerned with these important questions and procedural niceties. It accomplishes its malevolent mission by politicizing Srebrenica and frivolously imputing to Serbia and the Serbian people responsibility for a ghastly crime that they did not commit.