The Resolution on the Srebrenica Genocide, adopted yesterday by the UN General Assembly, serves as a kind of warning to this regime, notes Dejan Ilic, a writer and editor at Fabrika knjiga in Serbia, while prosecutor Radovan Lazic worries that the Resolution and its surrounding events will not contribute to easing tensions and reconciliation.

Dejan Ilic told N1 that he does not understand the celebration in Serbia after the Resolution's adoption, nor the statements made by government representatives in the days leading up to the UN vote.

“That crime happened. We didn’t learn anything new. Nothing new happened. If Serbia had behaved differently, if it had truly adhered to the Declaration on Srebrenica from 2010, we probably wouldn’t have this Resolution today. This Resolution is practically a kind of warning, a defeat, however you want to put it, to this regime, which is an old, renewed regime. It’s a regime from the 90s that came back to power in 2012, and this is a message to that regime,” he said.

“Our neighbors still fear us”

He adds that the regime used the Resolution to conduct the same war-mongering campaign it did in the early 90s, declaring half the world and all neighboring countries as enemies, especially people in Bosnia and Herzegovina who are not residents of Republika Srpska.

“We watched live again how that 90s campaign unfolded, how war sentiments were raised, and how it eventually led to wars that Serbia lost. What’s most troubling is not the loss, but the fact that Serbian units in Bosnia committed crimes, and the same happened in Kosovo. That’s the problem. The problem is this regime,” Ilic stated.

According to him, the regime reacted to the Resolution as it could only react.

“They could have, as honest people, said, ‘We are ashamed of what we participated in, it was never our intention for so many people to die senselessly.’ That’s what an honorable person would do. But why doesn’t the government do that? Because they are the ones responsible. They have never truly been held accountable for what they did. They have politically completely renewed themselves. They are practically freed from all responsibility for what happened in the 90s. Now we have a completely renewed old regime with all the same stories that led to the war and all the same lies they told in the 90s, they tell today. They projected the shame they should feel onto the entire nation, presenting themselves as defenders of the people. I think that’s a serious problem, that those who should feel ashamed not only don’t feel ashamed but have projected that shame onto someone else while presenting themselves as honorable or honest individuals,” says Ilic, adding that “our neighbors still fear us.”

“The path to reconciliation is confronting past events”

Radovan Lazic from the Association of Prosecutors of Serbia told N1 that he is concerned that the Resolution and the events surrounding it will not help reduce tensions or promote reconciliation.

“It seems to me that we are further from reconciliation than we were a few months ago, and even then we were far apart. The passions between the peoples who participated in the 90s war and who suffered horrific crimes on all sides are not much different today than they were in the early 90s when it all began, and that’s concerning. As a prosecutor, I must say that criminal responsibility for war crimes is individual, there is no collective guilt, and nations cannot be held accountable,” says Lazic.