Serbia is grateful to the United States for investments that improve life in its cities, but will oppose the adoption of a pending resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica at the upcoming UN General Assembly, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said during a visit by Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien.
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From the post of Special Coordinator for Sanctions, O’Brien, who held it, moved to the position of Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs in October 2023. On Saturday he arrived in Belgrade, where he met with Vucic behind closed doors.
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“It is important to concentrate and often talk about good things that are extremely significant in our cooperation. There are cities and towns in Serbia that, thanks to American companies, live decently and well. I opened from the factory in Sremska Mitrovica to the most modern highways near Krusevac, which American companies built it, and I am grateful to our American partners for this,” Vucic said at a joint press conference.
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“As for the resolution on Srebrenica, as you can see, as a political veteran who has nothing left to lose, although I am only 54 years old, I say everything to my face. I won’t say everything that we had in a conversation with Jim O’Brien, but everything , what is important for citizens, I say in person. I don’t hide how difficult everything that is happening is for us, for the entire Serbian people. As for the struggle around the resolution, we know that when America raises a finger or two, 70 countries will stand behind it. we are alone, and we alone will oppose them on the issue of resolution,” the Serbian leader said.
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He noted that the positions of Belgrade and Washington on the Kosovo issue diverge, but coincide on the need to maintain peace and stability in the region and emphasized the good cooperation of the Serbian authorities with the NATO KFOR contingent.
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The expected May 2 vote at the General Assembly (UNGA) on the resolution proposed by Germany and Rwanda on the genocide in Srebrenica in July 1995 and the ban on denying the fact of genocide, according to the leadership of Serbia and the RS BiH, declares the Serbs a “genocidal people” and raises the question of legitimacy of the existence of the RS BiH.
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At a rally in Banja Luka with the participation of 50 thousand people on Thursday evening, the President of the RS BiH Milorad Dodik called on fellow citizens to ignore the UN resolution on genocide in Srebrenica being prepared and pointed out that in July 1995 a criminal mistake was committed there, but not an act of genocide.
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The People’s Skupšina (parliament) of the Republic of Srpska Bosnia and Herzegovina (RS BiH) on Thursday reviewed and approved the conclusion of an independent international commission that there were no facts of genocide in the events in the Srebrenica area in 1992-1995. Previously, he repeatedly stated that if pressure from the central authorities in Sarajevo continues on the powers and freedoms of the RS, the leadership of the Bosnian Serbs will demand the independence of the Republika Srpska.
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In East Sarajevo in the RS BiH in 2017, a monument was erected to the permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Vitaly Churkin, under whom in 2015 the British draft resolution on Srebrenica was blocked in the UN Security Council, recognizing the 1995 executions as genocide, on which was written “Thank you for the Russian «no»”.
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BiH is a member of the Partnership for Peace program; the ALTHEA peacekeeping mission has also been operating in the country since 2004, which initially involved over 5 thousand military personnel from the EU and NATO countries, as well as Switzerland and Chile. After restructuring at the beginning of 2022, according to the command, about 1.1 thousand international military personnel remained at the Butmir base in Sarajevo and “on the ground” in different parts of the country. The main stated task of EUFOR at present is to train and participate in the modernization of the armed forces of BiH and to assist the country’s authorities “in creating a safe environment.”
