UN Had to Change After Failing in Srebrenica

The United Nations and the international community failed to protect the people from the massacre in Bosnia's Srebrenica, according to the statement of UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson.

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — The United Nations had to alter its work after it failed to protect the people from the massacre in Bosnia's Srebrenica, UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said Saturday.

Saturday, July 11, marks the 20th anniversary of the tragic events in the Muslim-majority town of the mainly Serb eastern part of Bosnia. Some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in Srebrenica after the city was occupied by the Bosnian Serb militia under the command of Gen. Ratko Mladic.

“Let me be clear. The United Nations and the international community failed to protect the people of Srebrenica,” Jan Eliasson said.

He added that the tragedy made the United Nations transform.

“It has fundamentally affected us and is, in many ways, altering our work. With the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, we have affirmed that the era of impunity is over,” Eliasson pointed out.

UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has indicted a total of 20 individuals for the crimes committed in Srebrenica.

On Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry called for all individuals responsible for the massacre in Srebrenica to be brought to justice.