25 Years After Srebrenica: “Local” Genocide in a Global Context

It’s a quarter of a century – and a half of my lifetime – since the 1995 Srebrenica genocide happened. Actually, to be more accurate, this genocide (like any other genocide) did not just happen; it was a planned, intentional crime committed by an army and the police trained, equipped and sponsored by Bosnia’s neighbour, the state of Serbia. They were the perpetrators –“beyond a reasonable doubt”, as numerous judgments by the ICTY have established– but this genocide was, in many regards, allowed to happened by the important actors within the international community who had chosen to play the role of passive bystanders, even though such a role was not only morally wrong but also against the international law and the 1951 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Moreover, while representing the first act of genocide in Europe after the Holocaust, this was also the first genocide ever to happen in a United Nations Safe Area (which sadly proved to be rather an un-safe area). At the time, the United Nations had its troops on the ground in Srebrenica with the mandate to protect people trapped in this largest refuge for Bosniaks in eastern Bosnia. However, instead of this mission becoming a triumph of the United Nations, in July 1995 Srebrenica became a triumph of the evil and the lowest point in the UN history.