MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In July 1995, more than 8,000 Muslim Bosniaks were killed in the town of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina amid the 1990s Yugoslav Wars.
“As we commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica, our hearts and our thoughts are with victims and their surviving families and friends. Today, we honor the victims,” the joint statement on the EU External Action website said.
“The values so dramatically violated 22 years ago – such as respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality – are now at the core of our engagement with Bosnia and Herzegovina and its citizens on the country’s EU integration path… The EU accession process is there to accompany the entire region towards reconciliation, justice and cooperation,” the document reads.
It adds that the upcoming Western Balkan Summit in Trieste will discuss ways for the region to move forward on joint initiatives.
In July 2015, Russia vetoed a draft resolution in the UN Security Council submitted by the United Kingdom that would condemn the 1995 Srebrenica events as a crime of genocide. According to Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin, the adoption of the resolution with such a classification of the events would have aggravated the situation in the region, as the there is no consensus on this classification either in the region, or in Bosnia and Herzegovina itself. In June 2015, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the resolution incorrectly interpreted what happened in Srebrenica from a legal point of view.
