The war crimes of the Russian Federation in Ukraine resemble the genocide in Srebrenica – European Commission
Russian war crimes in Ukraine reminded the world of the genocide in Srebrenica (Bosnia and Herzegovina).
This is stated in the joint statement of the Vice President of the European Commission, Josep Borrell, and the European Commissioner, Oliver Vargea, in connection with the 27th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica, where thousands of men were deliberately exterminated.
The statement says that Europe continues to honor the memory of all victims of the genocide in Srebrenica.
— But even today we cannot take peace for granted. Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked aggression against Ukraine returned a brutal war to our continent.
The mass killings and war crimes we are witnessing in Ukraine evoke vivid memories in those who witnessed the war in the Western Balkans in the 1990s, the European Commission noted.
The statement emphasizes that Europe has not forgotten its responsibility because it failed to prevent the massacre of Bosnian Muslims.
Genocide in Srebrenica
The massacre in Srebrenica became one of the tragedies of the Yugoslav war of the 1990s. After the UN Security Council declared the Srebnica enclave a safe zone in 1993, it was captured by the Bosnian Serb army in 1995.
The International Tribunal established that the soldiers of the Serbian army killed between 7 and 8 thousand Bosnian Muslims. In 2003, Serbia officially recognized responsibility for the genocide.
Troop commander Ratko Mladich was sentenced to life imprisonment. And the commanders of the Bosnian Serbs were tried for complicity in the genocide.
The thesis about the genocide in Srebrenica has recently been used by Russian propaganda, trying to justify military support for the occupation forces in Donbas. Moreover, Moscow itself previously opposed the recognition of the massacre in Srebrenica as genocide.
The head of the Ministry of Defense, Oleksiy Reznikov, rejected such statements, because before the invasion of Russia, there were not even hints of bloodshed in the controlled Donbass.
Source: European External Relations Service
