SERBIA: Serbian President Snubs Srebrenica Anniversary

President Tomislav Nikolic’s decision not to attend the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide was strongly criticised by rights campaigners in Serbia and Bosnia.

Nikolic was accused of genocide denial on Wednesday after a media report said he has decided not to attend the major commemoration in July at the memorial to around 7,000 Bosniak men and boys killed by Serb forces after Srebrenica fell in 1995.

The report published by Serbia’s Danas news portal on Tuesday gave no further explanation of Nikolic’s decision not to attend and his office did not respond to BIRN’s request for a comment.

Sonja Biserko from Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia said she was not surprised by Nikolic’s decision because she said the Serbian president believes the killings were a crime but did not amount to genocide.

Biserko also said that the behaviour of Serbian politicians, including Nikolic, shows “how deeply Serbia was involved and responsible for what was happening [during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina]”.

“Denial [of the genocide] itself shows Serbia is responsible,” she said.

Munira Subasic, the president of the Mothers of the Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves association, told BIRN that Nikolic’s decision hindred gthe prospects for post-war reconciliation.

“We know who he is and we know that he is still denying this crime. I think it would have been important for reconciliation for him to be here. I would like my child to have friends who are both Serbs and Bosniaks, and that cannot happen unless we accept simple truths,” said Subasic.

The president of the Srebrenica municipality, Camil Durakovic, told BIRN that Nikolic should stop denying that the genocide happened.

“We will not cry about him not coming, because that says what kind of a man he is, for him not to feel the need to come and see all those victims, when the whole world will be here. I prefer this actually than him coming under pressure from Europe or the US [to attend],” said Durakovic.

Although international and Bosnian courts have classified the Srebrenica massacres as genocide, Serbia officially denies it. In 2010, parliament adopted a resolution condemning the killings, but stopped short of calling them genocide.

Only one Serbian president, Boris Tadic, has visited the memorial site near Srebrenica in Potocari, in 2010.

Nikolic did however apologise to Bosniak victims of the massacres in 2013. “I am on my knees and begging for a pardon in the name of my people for the crime committed in Srebrenica,” he said in an interview on Bosnian television

The Srebrenica anniversary commemoration will take place in July at the Potocari memorial, where more than 6,000 victims of the massacres are buried. Former US President Bill Clinton, who originally opened the memorial, is expected to attend, as are the presidents of Croatia, Montenegro and Slovenia.

Ahead of the 20th anniversary, various peace groups from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro have been organising a series of events on the 11th of each month to commemorate the victims.

During one of the events, Serbian peace group Women in Black called for a parliamentary resolution which would criminalise any denial that genocide happened in Srebrenica.

Serbian journalist Dusan Masic has also started an initiative to hold a tribute to the genocide victims in front of the National Assembly in Belgrade on July 11, where he aims to gather 7,000 people, symbolising the approximate number of Bosniaks who were killed.

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