The Government of Montenegro is expected to consider this week the initiative announced last year to declare July 11th as the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Srebrenica Genocide, the cabinet of the Minister for Human and Minority Rights told "Vijesti". Fatmira Đeka, which prepared the initiative.
The state committed to establishing a Day of Remembrance even earlier.
In 2021, the Assembly adopted a Resolution on the Srebrenica Genocide, condemning the crime and prohibiting its denial. Article five of the document stipulates that July 11 be declared a day of remembrance for the victims of that crime.
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly voted in late May 2024 to declare July 11th as the International Day of Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide.
The document was also supported by Montenegro, and its amendment was accepted, clarifying that "responsibility for genocide, under international law, is individualized, and cannot be attributed to an ethnic, religious or other group."
The Ministry of Human and Minority Rights informed the editorial staff at the beginning of November last year that they were preparing an initiative to pass a decree declaring July 11th the day of remembrance for the victims of the Srebrenica genocide, which, upon completion, they would send to the Government and propose its acceptance.
At the beginning of July last year, the ministry told "Vijesti" that by adopting the resolution and supporting its adoption at the UN, Montenegro "clearly stood by the principles of justice, human dignity and the culture of remembrance."
"By adopting a decree declaring July 11th the day of remembrance for the victims of the Srebrenica genocide, our country will assume an institutional and moral obligation to preserve the truth. The Ministry of Human and Minority Rights will submit an initiative to the Government to adopt a decree," Đeko's department said at the time.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Ervin Ibrahimovic (BS) announced last week that Montenegro has repeatedly confirmed its principled position towards the genocide in Srebrenica, at the national level and within all multilateral forums.
He said this at a panel discussion dedicated to July 11 - the International Day of Remembrance and Commemoration of the Srebrenica Genocide in 1995, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in cooperation with the UN in Montenegro.
Ibrahimović said that the panel is an expression of the aspirations of the MFA and calls for the marking of the International Day of Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide, on July 11, to work towards strengthening and promoting the culture of remembrance and peace in Montenegro and beyond.
"And our response to attempts at revisionism, glorification of war criminals and hate speech, to which, unfortunately, we in Montenegro are not immune. And our decision to confirm our steadfastness in preventing the last phase of the genocide in Srebrenica, its negation and relativization, even from the official institutional level," Ibrahimović added.
NGOs persistently demanded a Day of Remembrance
Human Rights Action (HRA), the Center for Civic Education (CCE) and the Center for Women's and Peace Education (ANIMA) called on the Government and Parliament earlier this month to declare July 11th the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Srebrenica Genocide without further delay and ensure its regular institutional commemoration.
A joint statement by the three non-governmental organizations (NGOs) states that Montenegro has not officially established July 11 as the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Srebrenica Genocide this year, which would ensure its regular institutional commemoration.
It is stated that on June 11, these NGOs addressed the Presidents of the Parliament, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Human and Minority Rights with the question of whether the state would still mark July 11 this year.
They pointed out that they only received a response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the aforementioned panel would be organized and unofficial information from the office of the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament. Mirsad Nurković (BS) that an exhibition about Srebrenica is being prepared, which should be placed in the hall of the Assembly.
"We call on the Government and Parliament of Montenegro to declare July 11th the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Srebrenica Genocide without further delay and ensure its regular institutional commemoration, in accordance with Montenegro's international and domestic obligations," the statement said.
As it is added, this would show the state's consistency with its own decisions and confirm its commitment to the universal values of human rights.
"And sent a clear message that cultivating a culture of remembrance and respecting victims is not a matter of political will, but of civilizational responsibility that obliges us to clearly move away from the denial and relativization of genocide," concluded the statement by HRA, CCE and ANIMA.
Seventy-six Montenegrin non-governmental organizations (NGOs) demanded two years ago that Montenegro declare a day of remembrance for the crime in Srebrenica and ensure its official commemoration. Last year, over 100 NGOs, the Bosniak Council and civic activists issued an appeal, calling for them to pay tribute to the victims, express solidarity with the survivors and their families, and protest the failure of the Montenegrin authorities to declare a day of remembrance despite the UN General Assembly resolution.
The most massive crime on European soil since World War II
On July 11th this year, Potočari will mark the 31st anniversary of the systematic killing of over eight thousand unarmed Bosniaks aged 14 to 70 by members of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) in 1995. Over six hundred children were also killed, the youngest victim being a baby born on July 13th, 1995, exhumed from a mass grave near Srebrenica in 2012.
The Srebrenica genocide is the most massive crime committed on European soil since World War II. This crime was established by the judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
National courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Serbia, Croatia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands have also found that members of the VRS, as well as special units of the Republic of Serbia (“Scorpions”), committed genocide and other war crimes in Srebrenica.
The ICTY and the International Residual Mechanism have convicted 21 people for crimes in Srebrenica, seven of whom for genocide, based on over 1.500 testimonies and around 28.000 pieces of evidence. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, 31 people have been convicted for the same crimes, 14 of whom for genocide, five in Serbia, and two in Croatia.
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