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Russian diplomats slam 'divisive' UN measure on Srebrenica

As July marks a dark chapter of the Bosnian war, Russian diplomats seek to omit Srebrenica from the UN draft resolution.

By Jared M. Feldschreiber
The photo exhibit "Srebrenica, remembrance for the future," is on display in the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington. July, 2015 marks the 20 year anniversary. Photo credit: UPI
The photo exhibit "Srebrenica, remembrance for the future," is on display in the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington. July, 2015 marks the 20 year anniversary. Photo credit: UPI | License Photo

MOSCOW, July 1 (UPI) -- A UN draft resolution, proposed by the British delegation, severely criticizing the Serbian role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre was rebuked and deemed "divisive" by the Russian government Tuesday.

July marks the twenty-year anniversary of when Serb forces systematically killed over 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men in three days as part of the 1992-1995 Balkan war, which split up Yugoslavia. Many observers and journalists saw the Srebrenica genocide, in particular, as the darkest chapter in the European continent since the Holocaust, a claim Russia -- one of Serbia's staunchest allies -- has long disputed.

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Russian Deputy Ambassador Petr Illichev told reporters that the draft "focuses on only one aspect. It was only one part of the conflict," Radio Free Europe reported. The war in Bosnia claimed 100,000 lives, which left the country split into the two semi-independent entities known as Republika Srprska and the Muslim-Croat Federation.

Russia says it will drop any mention of Srebrenica within the text and focus on the Dayton peace accord, which ended the war. Alexei Zaitsev, the press secretary of Russia's UN mission said that the country's alternative resolution will "be more balanced and oriented at reconciliation of the sides rather than at drawing new disengagement lines" in the region. Russia has long been critical of NATO's intervention in the Balkans, which culminated with the bombardment of targets in Belgrade during the Kosovo war at the end of the decade.

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Matthew Rycroft, the British ambassador to the UN, said the resolution hopes to "encourage further steps towards reconciliation [and] affirm our determination to prevent genocide." The International Court Tribunal of Yugoslavia, which began in 1993, stated that it found evidence that atrocities were committed in 20 municipalities in Bosnia.

"Srebrenica was a crime of our time," U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said when visiting the town in 2012. "The international community failed in preventing the genocide that unfolded... But Srebrenica also gave birth to a new international resolve for justice, accountability, for a responsibility to protect civilians."

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