UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said during a press conference on Tuesday that he will attend this year's anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide.
“I'm going. It's very important to go to symbolically show a very strong commitment to the need for Srebrenica never to be repeated and the conditions that led to Srebrenica never to be repeated. We see with a lot of concern the evolution in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We believe that it is absolutely essential to move into a true reconciliation and fighting hate speech is one of our priorities,” Guterres said answering the question from Erol Avdovic, a Bosnian journalist and author, who asked if he would attend the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide and how he comments on the overall situation in Bosnia.
“We also are in contact with the Bosnian authorities, with neighbouring countries and from our perspective, Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country that needs a lot of support from the international community in order to be able to overcome the fact that its dysfunctional political system is helping to fuel divisions,” Guterres added.
He concluded that the UN will continue to cooperate with the countries from the region “in order to help them overcome the divisions and move closer to the EU.”
Watch live as @antonioguterres speaks to reporters about his priorities for 2020. https://t.co/3kdj72vRwb
— United Nations (@UN) February 4, 2020
Guterres’ statement can be seen at around 50th minute into the press conference.
In April 1993, the UN had declared the besieged enclave of the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica a safe area under UN protection.
However, in July 1995, the Dutch battalion failed to prevent the town's capture by the Bosnian Serb forces and the massacre that followed.
More than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed in the days following July 11, 1995, and so far the remains of more than 6,600 have been found and buried.
The International Criminal Tribunal (ICTY) for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice later ruled that the massacre was an act of genocide.
International and regional courts have sentenced 45 people for what happened in Srebrenica to a total of more than 700 years behind bars. Those who the ICTY sentenced to life imprisonment are Ljubisa Beara, Zdravko Tolimir, and Vujadin Popovic. But the most well known alleged masterminds of what happened in Srebrenica are former Bosnian Serb politician Radovan Karadzic and ex Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, and both have been sentenced for it but have appealed.
