Bosnia-Herzegovina’s ambassador to the United Nations has announced that the final text of a resolution on the Srebrenica genocide has been agreed.
Zlatko Lagumdzija announced the agreement on X, formerly Twitter, late on May 17, saying that changes proposed by Montenegro had been considered in the last few days and were largely implemented in the text of the resolution.
The latest revisions "led us to an even better 'refined' text with two amendments that became an integral part of the document," Lagumdzija said.
The agreed final version of the resolution will be presented to the General Assembly for a vote on May 23, Lagumdzija said.
He added that the discussion of the Srebrenica genocide in recent months represents "the fight for justice, truth, reconciliation, learning, prevention of genocide, and ultimately -- a symbol of the fight against the denial of genocide. No one can 'escape' from that anymore," Lagumdzija added.
In July 1995, more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were rounded up and killed by Bosnian Serb forces in Potocari near the eastern town of Srebrenica in the worst mass killing in Europe since World War II.
The massacre has been deemed genocide by various verdicts of both the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The UN resolution, which would declare July 11 as the International Day of Remembrance for the Genocide in Srebrenica, was initiated by Germany and Rwanda and is co-sponsored by the United States, France, Bosnia, and other countries. If the resolution passes, the day of remembrance would be observed starting on July 11 next year, the 30th anniversary of the genocide.
The final draft condemns any denial of the Srebrenica genocide as well as actions that glorify convicted war criminals and perpetrators of crimes against humanity and genocide.
It also highlights the importance of completing the process of finding and identifying the remains of victims of the genocide and calls for the continued prosecution of its perpetrators that have yet to be brought to justice.
The leaders of Bosnia's Serb entity, Republika Srpska, and Serbia have voiced angry opposition to the resolution, which they claim would label Serbs as a “genocidal nation.”
Milorad Dodik, Republika Srpska's Russian-friendly leader, has repeatedly threatened that if the resolution is adopted, the entity "will withdraw from the decision-making process in Bosnia."
Dodik, who has been sanctioned by the United States and Britain over his efforts to undermine the Dayton peace accords, has regularly reiterated his denial of the Srebrenica genocide.
Dodik told supporters at a rally in Banja Luka on April 18 that the actions of the Republika Srpska Army in Srebrenica in 1995 were "a mistake that left the crime," but again denied it was genocide.
Lagumdzija in a separate post on X on May 17 said the resolution includes language that "breaks out the arguments of false patriots who promote the nonexistent guilt of 'genocidal peoples'!"
The text reads: "We repeat that criminal responsibility under international law for the crime of genocide cannot apply to any ethnic, religious, or other community as a whole."
Serbia's nationalist president, Aleksandar Vucic, said the resolution should be subjected to a vote in the UN Security Council, not the General Assembly.
Unlike resolutions presented to the General Assembly, those put to a vote in the Security Council can be vetoed by any of its five members, therefore allowing Russia and China to sink it.
Russia’s UN ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, has dismissed the resolution as “one-sided” and “politically charged.” Nebenzya said on April 30 that the move would not promote reconciliation among Bosnia’s two entities.