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https://balkaninsight.com/2020/07/15/srebrenica-genocide-resolution-presented-to-us-house-of-representatives/
Srebrenica Genocide Resolution Presented to US House of Representatives
Danijel Kovacevic
Banja Luka
BIRN
July 15, 202014:21
A resolution condemning the genocide of Bosniaks from Srebrenica in July 1995 and other wartime crimes by Bosnian Serb forces has been proposed to the United States House of Representatives.

This article is also available in: Shqip Macedonian Bos/Hrv/Srp

The US Capitol Building in Washington DC. Photo: EPA/Michael Reynolds.

Democratic Party Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, backed by fellow Democrats Eliot Engel and James McGovern, presented a resolution to the House of Representatives on Monday stating that Bosnian Serb forces, aided by military and paramilitary forces from Serbia, were responsible for genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The proposed resolution, which has been referred to the House Committee on Armed Services for consideration, proposes that “the House of Representatives condemns the genocide committed by Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995”.

It states that “aggression and ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Bosnian Serb forces supported by the military and paramilitary forces from Serbia” started in April 1992.

After taking control, over Srebrenica in 1995, Bosnian Serb forces “deported women, children, and the elderly in buses, but held over 8,000 primarily Bosniak men and boys at collection points in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina under their control, and then summarily executed the captives and buried them in mass graves”, the resolution says.

“Hoping to conceal evidence of the Srebrenica massacre, Bosnian Serb forces subsequently moved corpses from initial mass grave sites to many secondary and tertiary sites scattered throughout parts of northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina under their control,” it adds.

US Representative Eddie Bernice-Johnson with US troops in Iraq. Photo: EPA/Khalid Mohammed.

The resolution condemns “statements, actions, and policies that deny or question that the massacre at Srebrenica constituted genocide and that dishonour the victims or disrespect their families”.

However, it says that it recognises that “entire ethnic groups or communities are not responsible for the crimes committed by some members of their forces”.

The resolution specifically accuses Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of the tripartite Bosnian presidency, of being a genocide denier “who has falsely labelled the Srebrenica genocide a ‘fabricated myth’’ and ‘’the greatest deception of the twentieth century’”.

Neither the Bosnian Serb leadership nor the authorities in Serbia accept that the Srebrenica massacres constituted genocide despite the verdicts of international courts.

The resolution also expresses concern that ethnic tensions stoked by political leaders and extreme nationalist sentiments could deter recovery and reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and even encourage new violence with potentially deadly consequences.