U.S. Embassy in Podgorica: State Department Given Access to Unofficial Draft Amendments to Srebrenica Resolution

Serbian Political Scene and the Srebrenica Massacre: Acknowledging the Crime, but not Genocide

The U.S. Department of State was given access to the unofficial draft version of Montenegro’s amendments to a draft resolution on Srebrenica, but had no mediating role in the process, the U.S. Embassy in Podgorica said in a release.

Montenegrin media reported on May 7 that the Government of Montenegro had not yet submitted its amendments to a draft resolution on Srebrenica genocide, but that it rather discussed with its partners, the United States and Germany in the first place, opportunities for amending the wording of the document so as to include the following: “Responsibility for the crime of genocide has been individualized, and shall not be ascribed to any ethnic, religious or other group or community in its entirety.”

Montenegrin Foreign Minister Filip Ivanovic has neither denied nor confirmed the allegations. Media reports say that the amendments call for the individualization of responsibility for genocide in Srebrenica, insisting on strict respect for the Dayton accords, too. Part of the Montenegrin public, supporting the draft resolution circulated by Germany and Rwanda, which would designate July 11 as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica, found the interventions unnecessary, because there’s no mention of collective guilt in the document, nor did the draft challenge the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They have suggested that the amendments “were drafted outside Montenegro,” motivated by loyalty to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s authorities.

A group of 110 non-governmental organizations, “and more than 340 citizens of Montenegro, demand the Government of Montenegro to co-sponsor the U.N. resolution, considering it a dignified expression of respect for the victims of Srebrenica genocide, and an accountable attitude towards the future.”