Citizens of Serbia, activists, ambassadors and members of oppositional political parties gathered on Thursday evening at the park between the City Assembly and the Presidency of Serbia. They came together to honor the victims of the Srebrenica genocide by lighting candles, as well as to show solidarity to survivors and members of their families.
As the gathering organizers, we aimed to show that we empathize with the pain of the families of the victims, together with the citizens of Serbia. Additionally, we aimed to urge Institutions of the Republic of Serbia to adopt the UN General Assembly Resolution on the Srebrenica Genocide. We also urge them to adopt the resolution’s recommendations on designating July 11 as International day of Reflection and Commemoration.
“This commemoration is different, as starting this year, July 11 is officially designated as International Reflection and Commemoration Day, as adopted by the UN. We want to place Belgrade on the map within the global remembrance of the Srebrenica genocide”, says Marko Milosavljević for N1 on Thursday, July 11.
As every year, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights has once again invited members of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, political parties and ambassadors in Belgrade. The absence of Prime Minister Vlada Vučević, as well as other ministers demonstrates that their statements on respecting all war victims of the 1990s Balkan wars are hypocritical. Next to the citizens of the Republic of Serbia, representatives of the Green Left Front (Zeleno-levi front) and The Free Citizens Movement (Pokret slobodnih građana) attended the commemoration, alongside the EU delegation in Serbia, representatives from embassies of the United States, United Kingdom, Denmark, Italy, The Netherlands, as well as Manuel Sarrazin, Germany’s special envoy for the Western Balkans
A few days before the 29th anniversary of the genocide, on July 7, posters appeared in Novi Sad calling for the commemoration of the ”anniversary of the liberation of the city of Srebrenica” on July 11, at the central square (Trg Slobode). The posters displayed emblems of the association “Srpski Soko” next to the official emblem of Republika Srpska and the city of Novi Sad. This event announcement was strongly criticized by the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, the BRAVO Movement, and the Antifascist Front 23rd October, which urged citizens to prevent the announced gathering of pro-fascist organizations.
The gathering took place amid physical and verbal confrontations between antifascists from Novi Sad and around twenty extreme right-wing members of the “Srpski Soko” organization. While the police intervened when conflicts erupted between the two groups, their responses were lacking when extremists threatened citizens with finding, beating, and slaughtering them. During the gathering, the right-wing individuals performed Nazi salutes and chanted “Ratko Mladić” and “Srebrenica is not genocide.” They attempted several times to address the crowd using a microphone, but were prevented by gathered citizens of Novi Sad.
