Eduardo Vasco
Unfortunately, most oppressed countries fell for the bait of imperialism. They voted together with their worst enemies: the USA, Germany, the United Kingdom and France.
Above all, all parties that were divided in this vote must reconcile. They cannot lose sight of the common objective and struggle. Imperialism will exploit these divergences to weaken the union of the BRICS, the Axis of Resistance and other areas of partnership between countries that seek to free themselves from their oppression. And it will look for other loopholes to implant discord between the oppressed countries, especially those leading the current uprising against the bankrupt imperialist order (Russia, China and Iran).
“If the goal of the sponsors was to divide the General Assembly…then they’ve succeeded brilliantly.”
The phrase from Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, points the way to understanding the true meaning of what is behind the vote in the United Nations General Assembly on the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.
Germany and Rwanda sponsored a vote by the General Assembly to decide whether the murder and disappearance of 8,000 Muslims in the city of Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the midst of the war in Yugoslavia in 1995, was or not a genocide committed by the Serbs.
Taking in consideration the 1948 Genocide Convention, that could be considered a genocide. Just like other massacres orchestrated by Bosnians and Croats in that carnage that spread across the Balkans in the 1990s. There was no saint among the Serb Chetniks, the Croat Ustashe and the Bosnian fundamentalists. They all committed atrocities among themselves.
However, contrary to the story told in the West that the Balkans — particularly the Serbs — are barbarians, they were not truly responsible for the violence that corroded and ultimately disintegrated the former Yugoslavia.
The United States and its European vassals, such as Germany, which has always had great influence in that region, fostered and manipulated nationalist feelings among all Yugoslav ethnicities, pitted Croats, Slovenes, Bosniaks and Albanians against the Serbs, inflamed the worst chauvinist instincts to erase more than 40 years of relatively harmonious and fraternal coexistence in a single nation.
Well, these same imperialists who divided the peoples of Yugoslavia now want to divide the peoples who have been uniting in the search for independence from the imperial powers. This was the main objective when proposing the vote on Srebrenica in the General Assembly.
The Rwandan government is nothing more than a puppet in the hands of these powers. And Rwanda does not have much authority to accuse others of genocide… although, there too, the real perpetrators were the same as those responsible for the war in the Balkans, which was taking place in parallel. Germany, mind you, has even less authority. But they were pawns used by the U.S., which knew that its rivals leading the “Global South” have divergent positions on Srebrenica and that, therefore, this would be a good opportunity to exploit these differences to its own advantage.
There were 84 votes in favor of the resolution and 19 against, in addition to 68 abstentions and dozens of other absences. To give you an idea of the division, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Yemen voted in favor of recognizing the Srebrenica genocide — after all, they are all Muslim countries whose governments have been trying to project its political influence on other countries, mainly Muslims, based on the motto of solidarity between brothers of faith. In this sense, it is natural that they voted this way, as this vote is seen as a sign of solidarity with the persecuted and killed Muslims in Bosnia.
South Africa, a member of the BRICS and whose diplomatic actions against Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians have stood out, also voted in favor of the resolution — precisely under pressure due to its position against Israel’s genocide, as if it voted against this resolution it would be attacked as a hypocrite.
Two Muslim-majority countries (Syria and Mali) were courageous enough to vote against this resolution, also due to geopolitical interests. All voters, in fact, chose their sides for geopolitical reasons. So did Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea, Nicaragua and the other 12 countries that opposed the resolution.
Brazil, India, the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria and Ethiopia were among those who preferred to abstain. It was also a courageous decision, because the appeal and pressure from imperialism to vote in favor were great (after all, who wouldn’t show solidarity with a people who were victims of genocide? Who would have the courage to say that the massacre of 8 thousand people of the same ethnic isn’t it genocide?).
Unfortunately, most oppressed countries fell for the bait of imperialism. They voted together with their worst enemies: the USA, Germany, the United Kingdom and France — who, obviously, also voted for geopolitical objectives, after all they condemn the genocide of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica exactly at the moment they are coordinating the genocide of 35,000 Muslims in Gaza.
The resolution is a complete sham, therefore. The West wants to use Srebrenica to attack Russia, Serbia’s great protector, and at the same time cover up the current genocide in which they are accomplices. Above all, he wants to divide the countries that are opposing his rule. The U.S. and European imperialists have been masters of this for centuries.
Iran and the other leaders of the “Global South” who voted for the resolution must understand that they may even be right to consider Srebrenica a genocide, but that is secondary at this point. The main thing should have been to denounce the farce of the resolution and the spurious objectives of its promoters, refusing to vote on the side of the United States.
On the other hand, Russia and China, accompanied by Cuba, Korea, Syria, Nicaragua and others, objectively chose the correct side by refusing to join the worst genocidaires in the history of humanity whose objectives were not solidarity with the victims, but rather division and submission of other peoples. Not considering the Srebrenica massacre as genocide is secondary.
In their justifications for the no vote, Russia and Nicaragua denounced the role of Western powers in the various tragedies during the wars in Yugoslavia, and together with Syria they exposed the hypocrisy of these same powers by comparing them with the genocide in Gaza. Syria also mentioned imperialism’s politicization of human rights to attack its adversaries. “Our General Assembly continues to be a victim of manipulation and use to advance the political agendas and specific interests of Western countries”, the Nicaraguan representative very correctly pointed out.
Above all, all parties that were divided in this vote must reconcile. They cannot lose sight of the common objective and struggle. Imperialism will exploit these divergences to weaken the union of the BRICS, the Axis of Resistance and other areas of partnership between countries that seek to free themselves from their oppression. And it will look for other loopholes to implant discord between the oppressed countries, especially those leading the current uprising against the bankrupt imperialist order (Russia, China and Iran). It is necessary to be aware that it was precisely the discords fomented by the imperialists between the USSR and China, Iran and Iraq, India and Pakistan, etc. which led to neocolonial dominance, neoliberal dictatorship and the survival of the imperialist regime. If the union against imperialism becomes stronger and more radical, victory will certainly come.
INTERNATIONALIST 360° 