Russia vetoes U.N. resolution calling Srebrenica a genocide

UNITED NATIONS – Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution Wednesday that would have condemned the 1995 massacre of Muslims at Srebrenica during the Bosnian war as a “crime of genocide,” saying that singling out the Bosnian Serbs for a war crime would create greater division in the Balkans.

Two international courts have called the slaughter by Bosnian Serbs of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys who had sought refuge at what was supposed to be a U.N.-protected site genocide.

But Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin objected to focusing only on Srebrenica, calling the resolution “confrontational and politically motivated” and stressing that Bosnian Serbs and Croats had also suffered during the 1992-95 war that killed at least 100,000 people.

Britain drafted the resolution Tuesday to mark the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, but the vote was delayed to address Russian concerns.

The defeated resolution states that acceptance of “the tragic events at Srebrenica as genocide is a prerequisite for reconciliation” and “condemns denial of this genocide as hindering efforts towards reconciliation.”

Peter Wilson, Britain’s U.N. deputy ambassador, stressed the resolution “did not point fingers of blame, score political points nor seek to reopen political divisions.” It also didn’t link the crimes at Srebrenica to the Serb people and recognized there were victims on all sides, he said.

The vote was 10 countries in favor, Russia casting a veto, and four abstentions – China, Nigeria, Angola and Venezuela.

Leaders of the Bosnian Serbs and Serbia, who have close religious and cultural ties to Russia, have lobbied President Vladimir Putin to vote “no.”

Serbia’s pro-Russian President Tomislav Nikolic said Russia’s veto “not only prevented the throwing of guilt against the whole Serbian nation, trying to show it as genocidal, but it also proved that Russia is a real and sincere friend.”