Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told the UN General Assembly that the resolution on Srebrenica will open old wounds.

This is not about reconciliation nor about remembrance and will only open old wounds not only in the region but in this hall as well, he said speaking after the German ambassador presented the draft resolution. He added that he finds it hard to speak after the German official.

He said that he wanted to show lies and called UN member states to vote against the adopting of the resolution which introduces a day of remembrance for the victims of the war crimes committed by Bosnian Serb forces in the summer of 1995 which were ruled to be genocide by international criminal courts.

Vucic recalled that he and his predecessor Boris Tadic went to Srebrenica to pay homage to the victims and a Serbian Parliament resolution condemning the war crimes adopted in 2015. I went to Srebrenica to bow my head before the Bosniak victims and I was almost lynched, he said. Vucic expressed the hope that every act of genocide covered by that resolution, including the genocide against the Serbs, would be condemned and recalled the Serbian victims of both world wars.

The Serbian President asked why the resolution is being introduced since, according to him, this is a case of individual accountability and when the people responsible for the Srebrenica war crimes have been sentenced. He also asked the German ambassador why the preparation of the resolution was kept secret. He also claimed that pressure was exerted on a number of UN member states prior to the vote. He accused unspecified powers of threatening countries that refused to vote to adopt the resolution.

There is a little country in the Balkans which will vote against this resolution because it will open Pandora’s box and you will have to respond to dozens of accusations of genocide.

Vucic said he would give a Serbian flag to the President of the UN General Assembly.

The Serbian president and other senior state officials have been warning that the resolution labels the Serbs as a genocidal nation.