http://www.balkaninsight.

com/en/article/eu-commission-against-racism-asked-serbia-to-acknowledge-
genocide-05-16-2017

News 16 May 17

Council of Europe Calls for Serbia to Acknowledge

Genocide
The Council of Europes anti-discrimination commission said that political leaders in Serbia should
officially recognise that massacres committed in Srebrenica in 1995 constituted genocide.

Maja Zivanovic
BIRN
Belgrade

Srebrenica massacre memorial gravestones. Photo: Wikimedia/Michael Bker

The European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance, ECRI, said in a report published Tuesday that
while Serbian public broadcaster RTS has acknowledged its role as a propaganda tool in the 1990s, and that
the Serbian parliament and president have both apologised for the Srebrenica massacre, they still fall short
of recognising the extent of the crimes committed.

However, ECRI deplores the fact that neither of them has explicitly recognised that these massacres
constituted genocide, as has been determined by international courts, and deeply regrets the slow progress
made in the prosecution and sentencing of genocide and other racist war crimes, the report said.

In July 1995 Bosnian Serb forces massacred more than 7,000 Bosniak men and boys. Serbian officials
continue to deny that the Srebrenica massacres were genocide.
Political leaders should officially recognise that the massacres committed in Srebrenica constitute
genocide, said ECRI Chairman Christian Ahlund in a written statement. He added that such recognition, as
well as transparent investigations into all cases of violence are absolutely necessary to make sure that people
of different ethnic communities do not have to live in fear of intimidation or a new wave of hate crimes.

ECRI noted further room for improvements, stating that much needs to be done in Serbia to address a
continued rise in hate speech, fight racism among sports fans, protect Roma and LGBT persons and step up
the prosecution of war crimes.

The use of inflammatory language is reminiscent of the situation before the recent wars in the region,
ECRIs experts noted.

ECRI is a human rights body of the Council of Europe, composed of independent experts, who monitor
cases of racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, intolerance and discrimination.

The report specifically identifies racism among football fan groups, and recommended that authorities ban
racist sports fan clubs.

This issue is of particular importance, given the role that racist and violent football fan groups played in the
outbreak of the recent wars in the region, the report emphasises.

ECRI warned that violence against Roma people continues in Serbia and that homophobic and transphobic
violence is heavily underreported.

The report also noted progress, welcoming improvements to anti-hate legislation and practices, as well as
the increasing recruitment of police officers of Albanian origin, and the fact that the countrys anti-
discrimination strategy provides for the introduction of legislation to register same-sex partnerships.