US Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson presented to the US House of Representatives on Wednesday a resolution which condemns “the genocide and other crimes against the Bosniak community perpetrated by Bosnian Serb forces at Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina in July 1995.”

According to the Resolution, the House of Representatives “condemns the genocide perpetrated by Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995” as well as “statements, actions, and policies that deny or question that the massacre at Srebrenica constituted a genocide and that dishonour the victims or disrespect their families,” while taking into account that “entire ethnic groups or communities are not responsible for the crimes committed by some members of their forces.”

It urges the Peace Implementation Council, the international body overseeing Bosnia’s peace made up of foreign ambassadors and heads of international organizations, to restore “full funding” to the Office of the High Representative, the official monitoring the implementation of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement.

It also encourages the High Representative to “exercise his full executive powers to ensure that the General Framework Agreement for Peace is implemented fully” and to “call for an end to historical revisionism”, particularly regarding the Srebrenica Genocide.

The Resolution encourages the US to “maintain and reaffirm its policy” of supporting Bosnia’s sovereignty, legal continuity, unity, and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders and reaffirms strong support for the people in the country and their “aspirations for greater democracy, economic prosperity, and success in Euro-Atlantic and European Integration.”

The Resolution also urges the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, their elected representatives, and the international community “to place renewed emphasis on respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms held by the individual, which should not be compromised by any collective protections and privileges to a group, ethnically based or otherwise.”

It encourages the US to promote peace and stability across southeast Europe and “the right of all people living in the region, regardless of national, racial, ethnic, or religious background, to return to their homes and enjoy the benefits of democratic institutions, the rule of law, and economic opportunity, as well as to know the fate of missing relatives and friends.”

The Resolution also points out the work of the International Commission for Missing Persons in Bosnia and its efforts “in accounting for nearly 90 percent of those reported missing after the Srebrenica massacre and approximately 75 percent of those reported missing during the whole of the conflict.”

It also welcomes the completion of the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICMP), including its sentencing of former President of Bosnia’s Serb-majority Republika Srpska (RS) region, Radovan Karadzic, and former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, as well as 88 others who were found guilty of various crimes, “including war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and related offenses,” describing is as a judicial process that “helped strengthen peace and encouraged reconciliation between the countries of the region and their citizens.”

The Resolution, however, expresses concern that “ethnic tensions stoked by political leaders and extreme nationalist sentiment can deter recovery and reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and even encourage new violence with potentially deadly consequences” and urged Bosnia’s political leaders to “cease using divisive rhetoric to stoke ethnic divisions in order to achieve shortsighted political gains.”

Political leaders should “demonstrate courage by championing tolerance, empathy, and mutual respect for the purpose of fostering lasting reconciliation, peace, and prosperity for the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” it said.

To conclude, the Resolution says that the House of Representatives “recognizes the 8,372 people killed or executed at Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina in July 1995, along with all individuals who endured pain and suffering or who were killed in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995, as well as foreign nationals, including United States citizens, and those individuals in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia and 9Herzegovina, and other countries of the region who risked or lost their lives because of their defense of human rights, fundamental freedoms, and ethnic identity without discrimination.”