[President of UN General Assembly Sam Kutesa (L), UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (C) and Permanent Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina to UN Mirsada Colakovic (R) stand in silence during commemoration ceremony for Srebrenica Genocide held at UN headquarters in New York, NY on July 01, 2015. Photographer: Cem Özdel/AA]
UNITED NATIONS (AA): UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday admitted the UN failed in its duty to protect the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
“The UN Secretariat, the Security Council and member states share the blame,” Ban said at an event in New York to commemorate the 8,000 Muslims murdered by Serb paramilitaries in the Bosnian town while under the protection of UN peacekeepers.
Ban said the “atrocious murder of Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica will forever weigh on the collective conscience of the international community.”
Recalling a 2012 visit to Bosnia, Ban told how the “endless rows of tombstones is now etched in my mind” and said he would “always remember the tears and pain of the mothers and loved ones of those who were killed because of who they were.”
Acknowledging that the international community had a responsibility to learn from the massacre, the former South Korean diplomat said the world was “still failing too many people in desperate need.”
He called for countries to build inclusive societies and help those affected by violence to rebuild and reconcile.
“We must stand together against those who incite and divide – and those guilty of repression and misrule,” Ban added.
On Tuesday, Britain circulated a draft Security Council resolution condemning “in the strongest terms the genocide in Srebrenica.”
The council is scheduled to vote the resolution on July 7.
