Hungary will vote against U.N. resolution commemorating the 1995 genocide in Bosnia, minister says
Budapest, Hungary — Hungary will vote against a United Nations resolution commemorating the 1995 genocide of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica, its foreign minister said on Wednesday, arguing it would increase tensions in the Balkan country and the surrounding region.
Péter Szijjártó received Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik in the Hungarian capital Budapest, where Szijjártó accused the UN and the High Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina of taking steps to destabilize the country devastated in the 1992-1995 war.
During that conflict, more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were executed by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica, an eastern Bosnian enclave. The remains of the victims were dumped in mass graves and later reburied to hide evidence of atrocities.
On Wednesday, Szijjártó said Hungary would vote against the planned UN resolution on the genocide – which he called the “tragedy of Srebrenica” – because it would “intentionally or unintentionally demonize the entire Serbian nation.”
“We believe that international political actors must put an end to the escalation of tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, end the threat of sanctions and end violent interference in internal affairs,” Szijjártó said.
The UN resolution is supported by Bosnian politicians in Bosnia, along with a number of European countries and the United States. At the suggestion of Germany and Rwanda, July 11 would be declared the “International Day of Reflection and Remembrance of the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide.”
Bosnian Serbs and neighboring Serbia have strongly opposed it, saying it would brand the Serbs as a “genocidal nation.” The Serbs are supported by Russia and China.
International courts in The Hague have declared the crime in Srebrenica a genocide, the first in Europe since World War II. Top Bosnian Serb army officers and political leaders have also been convicted of genocide by UN judges.
Dodik, the Bosnian Serb separatist leader of the Serb-majority Republika Srpska, has denied that the Srebrenica massacre was a genocide. He was placed under US sanctions in 2022 that accused him of “corrupt activities” that threaten to destabilize the region and undermine a US-brokered peace deal more than 25 years ago.
On Wednesday, Dodik said the Serbian side “does not dispute that a terrible crime took place in Srebrenica,” but that the U.N. resolution “would destabilize the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina to such an extent that it would completely paralyze all possible relations.” He thanked Szijjártó for taking a stand against it.
In a post to revisionism, undermining international efforts to recognize and learn from this tragedy.”
“Orbán’s opposition to the Srebrenica resolution can be seen as part of a broader pattern of rejecting international consensus on human rights issues,” Suljagić wrote. “By refusing to recognize the genocide, Hungary under Orbán is sending a dangerous message that historical truths can be conveniently ignored for political expediency.”