Srebrenica contrition call

MEPs have called for the commemoration throughout the EU of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide (as declared by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) on 11 July.

On that day, Bosnian Serb forces under the command of General Ratko Mladić executed more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys who had sought UN protection in the area. The European Parliament resolution on ‘the biggest war crime in Europe since the end of WWII’ carried by 556 votes. The assembly called it ‘a symbol of the international community’s impotence to intervene and protect civilians’. While calling for reconciliation, with Mladić still free, the parliament also demanded further efforts to catch him. Strasbourg also urged all countries of the western Balkans to mark 11 July in keeping with respect due to the victims of all atrocities.

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