Srebrenica Remembrance Day in Montenegro and Croatia
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The parliaments in Montenegro and Croatia have adopted declarations that recognize July 11 as a Day of Remembrance for victims of genocide in Srebrenica.
The declarations accept a European Parliament resolution on Srebrenica from January this year, condemning the crimes commited in Srebrenica in 1995 and proclaiming July 11 a day of remembrance for the victims of Srebrenica.
The Croatian Sabor adopted a declaration citing it as a political act that condemns crime “committed by whoever, in whoever’s name for whatever purpose.”
Some 8,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men were killed by Serb forces led by General Ratko Mladic in the July 1995 offensive. The massacre has been termed genocide by the International Court of Justice in 2007.
Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are the only countries in the region who have not adopted the declaration. The resolution in the Bosnian Parliament failed after Bosnian Serbs rejected the document.
At the time of the Srebrenica genocide, Montenegro and Serbia were two republics in the then-Yugoslavia. After the proclamation of Montenegro’s independence, its officials formally apologised to Bosnian victims for its role during the Bosnian war.
The European Parliament resolution called the Srebrenica genocide “the biggest war crime in Europe since the end of WWII” and “a symbol of the international community’s impotence to intervene and protect civilians”.
The European Parliament resolution also called on all Balkan countries to adopt the declaration, though Bosnia itself has failed to do so.
