Israeli historian Gideon Graif, president of the Independent International Commission for the Investigation of the Suffering of All Peoples in the Srebrenica Region from 1992 to 1995, stated that the terrible crime committed in Srebrenica in the summer of 1995 cannot be classified as genocide, and that the adoption of a resolution on Srebrenica at the UN will not bring any good to anyone.
In a statement to Tanjug, Graif assessed that the initiative to adopt the Srebrenica resolution at the UN is an artificial step aimed at spreading false news in the world and misrepresenting historical events.
“We must be very scientific when describing history. We cannot change the facts. We must remain loyal to reality. There was a crime, of course. The purpose of this initiative is a political attempt to rewrite history and it should not be accepted,” said Graif.
He quoted a sentence from the United Nations Convention, which states: “Genocide is a series of activities intended to perform ethnic cleansing.”
“None of the characteristics mentioned in that sentence from the UN convention apply. Therefore, there was no genocide. You cannot play with terms… You must act in accordance with what corresponds to reality. My commission worked for two years before coming to the conclusion. The crimes committed in Srebrenica in 1995 do not meet the definition of genocide. Serious crimes occurred, perpetrators must be punished, but this was not genocide,” Graif emphatically stated.
He evaluated that the adoption of the Srebrenica resolution will only deepen the conflict and bloodshed instead of leading to peace and will not bring any good to either the Balkans or humanity.
Source: RTRS
