UN resolution to commemorate the Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia sparks opposition from Serbs

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A U.N. resolution sponsored by Germany and Rwanda to establish an annual day to commemorate the 1995 genocide of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims by Bosnian Serbs has sparked protests and a strong lobbying campaign against its adoption by Serbia’s president and the Bosnian Serb leadership. The U.N. General Assembly has scheduled a debate on the resolution next week to be followed by a vote in the world body. The final draft of the resolution would designate July 11 as the “International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenca,” to be observed annually starting in two months. The massacres started on July 11, 1995. The Srebrenica killings were the bloody crescendo of Bosnia’s 1992-95 war.