The United Nations General Assembly voted yesterday to establish an annual day of remembrance for the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, despite vehement opposition from Bosnian Serbs and Serbia. The resolution, A/RES/78/282, authored by Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Rwanda, received 84 votes in favor, 19 against, and 68 abstentions.

Here you can see an overview: the countries that voted in favor of this resolution are committed to justice and truth.

According to the Bosnian Ambassador to the UN, many countries that abstained from voting acknowledged that genocide was committed in Srebrenica by Serb forces. However, they have been under tremendous pressure from Russia, Serbia, and/or China, and therefore abstained.

This resolution is not just significant to the Bosnian victims of Serb war crimes and the horrendous plans to create Greater Serbia in the 1990s. It should also be significant to Serbian society, which has been influenced by fascist ultranationalists since the mid-1980s, the Milošević regime, and now the almost equally vicious Vučić regime. Yet again, Serbia shows that it doesn't dare to look in the mirror and accept the tragedy and atrocities it committed in the Balkans during the 1990s. Official Serbia still pretends that the whole world is against it and that it is merely a small nation being attacked by great powers, while completely ignoring the fact that it continues to exercise hegemonic tendencies over many of its neighboring countries, especially Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Kosovo.

Serbia needs to face its problematic recent history, acknowledge all the atrocities planned by its 1990s leadership, and genuinely accept the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of all its neighbors. When that happens, the entire Western Balkans will have a chance at a prosperous future. Recognizing the Bosnian Genocide and accepting this UN Resolution would be a great starting point. Countries that opposed the resolutions are Serbia, Russia, China, Belarus, Hungary, Cuba, North Korea, Antigua, Comoros, DR Congo, Dominica, Eritrea, Eswatini, Grenada, Mali, Nicaragua, Nauru, São Tomé, and Syria.

See the pattern?

The United Nations have already included International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica in its official calendar.