Marijan Risticevic, an MP of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), suggested a draft resolution on Srebrenica on Friday, again avoiding the term genocide. Pročitaj više

The suggestion came a day after Montenegrin Parliament passed the Resolution condemning the 1995 genocide in Bosnia’s eastern town, then declared the UN safe zone.

Two international courts’ rulings described the killing of over 8,000 Bosniaks, mostly men from teens to old age, committed by Bosnian Serb forces as genocide. Still, Belgrade has been challenging the term ever since.

In 2010, during the now opposition parties’ rule, Serbia’s Parliament adopted the Declaration on Srebrenica, condemning the crime in line with the judgment of the International Court of Justice, but without mentioning the term genocide.

Risticevic’s draft resolution deals with crimes in and around Srebrenica from 1992 to 1995, with a proposal to be passed in urgent procedure because “it was motivated by the desire for lasting peace and reconciliation of the people in the region, and especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

He added it also had to prevent what he described as “manipulation with the celebration of the 26th anniversary of the crimes in Srebrenica by certain great powers on the international political scene, and some local political parties, organisations and NGOs.”

The draft was reportedly submitted on Thursday.

It says the Parliament “condemns all crimes in and around Srebrenica from 1992 to 1995, the denial of crimes committed, as well as the selective justice for war crimes by international and national courts and their bias in favour of either side in war conflicts in the rump Yugoslavia, BiH and in and around Srebrenica.”

“Parliament condemns any manipulation, increase and decrease of the number of victims, by any party, since that does not contribute to reconciliation among the BiH peoples and any propaganda activity that, by using crimes and victims in political propaganda to achieve political goals in BiH and the region,” the draft added.

It suggested that July 11 and 12 be declared the days of remembrance for all victims of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.

His fellow MP, the head of the United Serbia (JS) party, Dragan Markovic Palma, currently under suspicion of pimping girls and young woman, said that politicians from Montenegro “stabbed Serbia and the Serb people in the back.”

He added that “Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have such a resolution.”

The country cannot adopt it due to the opposition of Republika Srpska, the Serb-dominated entity, which constantly denies the genocide.

“I remind (Montenegro’s President) Milo Djukanovic and (Prime Minister) Zdravko Krivokapic that during the wars in the former Yugoslavia, Serbs and Montenegrins fought together to preserve the then common state in both Croatia and BiH,” Markovic said.