Davutoğlu To Attend Srebrenica Commemoration On Saturday

Acting Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu will be traveling to Bosnia and Herzegovina this weekend to attend the commemoration ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the massacre in Srebrenica, in which Bosnian Serbs killed over 8,000 Bosnian Muslims.

Davutoğlu will attend the commemoration that will be held in Bosnia on July 11, Today's Zaman has learned. Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic's office said last week that Nikolic will not attend the ceremony, following a British-introduced draft resolution to the UN Security Council recognizing the Srebrenica massacre as genocide.

Western nations and Russia are divided over whether the UN Security Council should call the Srebrenica massacre, which took place towards the end of the Bosnian war, an act of genocide.

It's still not clear whether Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic will attend the ceremony in Bosnia. He had previously stated that he would like to attend if invited. Vucic has also refused to call the massacre genocide.

Davutoğlu also requested to meet with his Serbian counterpart, Vucic, in Bosnia, if Vucic attends the commemoration, Today's Zaman has learned.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the massacre of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys genocide, at a UN General Assembly commemoration on July 1.

The UK has introduced a draft resolution to the UN Security Council that “condemns in the strongest terms the genocide in Srebrenica.” The Serbian government finds the efforts to call the massacre genocide “unconstructive.” Belgrade thinks the resolution divides people, rather than helping to heal the ties between the Balkan peoples.

The UN Security Council was going to be voting on the UK-drafted resolution that aims to mark the 20th year of the mass killings but faces opposition from Russia. It is not clear whether Russia will use its veto. Russian Ambassador to the UN Petr Iliichev has described the resolution as “divisive” and focused on just “one part of the conflict.”

The draft resolution stresses that "acceptance of the tragic events at Srebrenica as genocide is a prerequisite for reconciliation" and condemns genocide denial.

Serbia last weekend asked Russia to veto the genocide resolution. According to Serbian state TV, Serbian President Nikolic has sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin and asked Russia to veto the resolution in the UN Security Council.

Serbian officials say the resolution should include all victims of the Bosnian civil war. Moscow could veto or abstain from endorsing the resolution. Russia has also circulated its own draft among the UN Security Council members about the Srebrenica massacre without using the word genocide.

Bosnian Serb forces under the command of Gen. Ratko Mladic overran the UN-protected safe haven of Srebrenica on July 11, 1995. Mladic's troops loaded thousands of Muslim men and boys onto trucks and executed them in a nearby forest, and later buried them in mass graves.

The International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) previously ruled that Srebrenica was a genocide. It is widely seen as the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.

The resolution calls the UN member countries to develop educational programs to prevent genocide and ethnic cleansing for future generations. It also calls on UN Secretary-General Ban to foster cooperation for establishing an early warning mechanism for genocide prevention at the UN.

Days before the ceremony in Srebrenica, hundreds of Bosnians and Britons attended a memorial service at Westminster Abbey on Monday to commemorate Srebrenica.

“We must never, ever forget what happened at Srebrenica,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said in tributes before the service. “We must reaffirm our determination to act to prevent genocide in the future,” he added.

The Bosniak member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, also attended the Westminster Abbey service.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)