In the last few days, a lot of people have been expressing strong views about the planned UN resolution to mark the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica during the terrible war of the 1990s, where all sides suffered such terrible losses, military and civilian.
When the UK accepted the responsibility of drafting this resolution, we knew that it would be a difficult task, and even a risky one, as some have said. The absence of sufficient serious and sustained steps towards reconciliation within Bosnia and Herzegovina and the wider region over the past 20 years means that the wounds remain raw.
Nevertheless, together with colleagues at the United Nations, we believe that this anniversary is an important one to mark, in a careful and respectful way. That is what we will collectively be seeking to do as the text is discussed and prepared in New York.
Srebrenica represents the most terrible single event in mainland Europe since the end of the Second World War. Over 8,000, mostly men and boys, were systematically killed and buried in mass graves. Thousands of families lost their loved ones. Many are still searching for their bodies. First and foremost, this was a human tragedy on a massive scale and it is right that we should commemorate the victims, those who died and those who are left behind.
Of course, we recognise and we respect deeply the fact that the people of Srebrenica were not the only ones who suffered in the war. Many other families throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina – Serbs, Bosniaks, Croats and others – lost fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. The pain they feel is something no-one else can understand. But the sheer number of those who died in the organised killings at Srebrenica is something without equal and must be the subject of special reflection and commemoration.
The second reason is that this was a hugely significant event for the United Nations itself. In his report after the event, Kofi Annan, then the Secretary General, recognised that the United Nations had made mistakes and that they had not done enough to prevent the killings. This anniversary represents an important moment for the United Nations to take stock, and to ensure that it has learned lessons for the future from the tragedies of the past. It is right that we should do so.
Much of the commentary in recent days has focused on the word ‘genocide’. But it is important to understand that, however difficult and divisive an issue it might be within BiH’s domestic politics, there is no serious debate about this within the international community. Two separate international courts, involving some of the most experienced judges in the world, have on a number of occasions confirmed that this event meets the legal definition of ‘genocide’. However one feels about it, it is an indisputable legal fact that genocide was committed in Srebrenica. That is why all the members of the Peace Implementation Council Steering Board, when it met in Sarajevo last week, united to reaffirm that genocide in Srebrenica, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the course of the conflict in BiH must not be forgotten or denied. To say so is not to attack Republika Srpska, or Serbia, or anyone else. It is a simple statement of a sad truth.
Some have said that this resolution threatens reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in the wider region. In fact, the political reactions to this resolution expose the sad reality that too little has been done, and too little leadership has been shown, to promote and encourage real, deep and meaningful reconciliation. There hasn’t been enough honesty about what happened on all sides; people in BiH and the region are entitled to know and try to understand, to allow them to move forward.
This is not just a challenge for one single group, people or country. We know that all sides suffered the loss of innocent lives in the war. We believe that the UN resolution should explicitly recognise this, and express its sympathies to all victims of the war.
So I hope that, as this important anniversary approaches, all political leaders, in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the wider region, will focus not on the politics, but instead on the human tragedy not just of Srebrenica, but of the war as a whole. And I hope that they will see this resolution for what it is intended to be: an encouragement, twenty years after the war, to take forward a process of reconciliation with greater urgency, to come to terms with the past, to learn its lessons, and to work for a just and lasting peace for all the people of BiH. There could be no more fitting tribute to the innocent victims of war.
By Edward Ferguson
