Can Serbia officially condemn Srebrenica genocide?

Can Serbia officially condemn Srebrenica genocide?

The fate of the declaration now relates to the issue of the pending new government. It is not yet known who will draft the text. Even though the ICJ’s judgment binds Serbia to adopt the declaration, the Democratic Party of Serbia, the Socialist Party of Serbia and the Radicals still insist that the declaration should condemn all crimes, regardless of their origin and character.

The ICJ’s ruling absolved Serbia of a collective guilt for the Srebrenica bloodshed, implying that the Serbian Parliament must be heard regarding the genocide.

Dragoljub Mićunović, president of the DS Political Council, believes that the new government needs to be formed prior to the drafting of the declaration.

“With the collective guilt out of the way, we are bound to collectively condemn the violence. We can no longer argue to what extent and whether the Srebrenica crime was indeed committed, since the group of 15 legal experts in the ICJ labeled the crime as an act of genocide. That’s why we can only act accordingly and condemn the crime”, Mićunović said.

There’s a question whether the National Parliament can take a joint stand now as it did with Kosovo. The first attempt to condemn the crime in Srebrenica by adopting a declaration in the Parliament fell through in the summer of 2005 because parties could not agree on the content.

The Parliamentary session that coincided with the 10 year anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide failed to produce the declaration, and the assembly only gave a one-minute silence in honor of the victims of the terrorist attack in London, and the crimes in Srebrenica, Bratunci and Skelani.

The Democratic Party (DS), the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the G17 Plus are the only parliamentary parties that have so far backed the declaration.

The parties that in June 2005 insisted that the declaration condemn not only the Srebrenica genocide but the crimes committed against the Serbs as well, still advocate the same stance.