Former Diplomat: Authorities Reading into Resolution on Srebrenica Something That Isn't There

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

Srecko Djukic, a former diplomat, said on May 24 that the politicians in power were attributing to Serbia and the Serbs what no one saw and what was not contained in the U.N. Resolution on the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica.

Regarding the document's adoption in the U.N. General Assembly, Djukic told BETA that it was inconceivable for a defeat in the international arena to be turned into a victory at home.

"We are grandmasters of surviving fatal days. If we have learned anything in the more than three and a half decades of permanent crisis we've been living in, then it's exactly how to survive 'D-days,' which line up one after the other. That is why God was invoked to help before New York and never before seen unity and silence in the country was asked for. And that was achieved, because the politicians in power attribute to Serbia and the Serbs and read what no one sees and what is not written in the U.N. document," he said.

As for the placement of flags on the streets and on flagpoles, as well as draped over the backs of senior state officials, Djukic said that defeat on the international plane could not be a victory on home turf. "Eighty-four countries voted for the U.N. General Assembly Resolution designating July 11 as the Day of Genocide in Srebrenica, 19 were against and 68 abstained. It is clear where the majority is, and Serbia reacted as if neither the adopted resolution nor the results bound it," he said.

"But that's not all. Republika Srpska has officially announced its dissociation from the Federation in the next month. And so we instantly have a new 'D-day,' and we already know that each new 'D-day' brings us a new defeat," said Djukic.

The former diplomat also said that it remained unclear to the public how Serbian diplomats had not known what was being written about Srebrenica in Berlin, Sarajevo and New York. In his words, in the case of adoption of the resolution on Srebrenica, Serbian policy failed, which has for years been ignoring dialogue and talks with the Bosniak side in Bosnia and Herzegovina.