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UN Declares July 11 Day of Remembrance for Srebrenica Massacre

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United Nations member states have voted to declare July 11 an annual day of remembrance for victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, despite opposition from Serbia. The proposal, brought by Germany and Rwanda, aims to establish the “International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica.” While 84 member states voted in favor, there were 19 votes against and 68 abstentions.

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic opposed the resolution, claiming it was politically motivated and could unfairly label Serbia and Serbs as collectively responsible for genocide. Vucic warned that this could lead to further resolutions on other genocides, potentially including those against Serbs during WWII by the Nazi-allied regime in Croatia.

The massacre, carried out by Bosnian-Serb forces under the command of Ratko Mladic, resulted in the systematic killing of over eight thousand Bosniak Muslim men and boys. The aftermath involved attempts to hide the scale of the massacre by exhuming and redistributing bodies, complicating identification efforts. The International Commission on Missing Persons used DNA technology to identify over seven thousand victims, praising the UN resolution for its acknowledgment and commemoration.

The resolution explicitly states that genocide convictions are against individuals, not entire ethnic or religious groups. In 2007, the International Court of Justice recognized the massacre as genocide but did not hold Serbia directly responsible, though it criticized Serbia for failing to prevent it. Serbia’s National Assembly condemned the massacre in 2010, and Vucic, as prime minister in 2015, visited Srebrenica to pay respects on the 20th anniversary.

Milorad Dodik, president of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska region, and other Serb nationalists deny that genocide occurred, sometimes glorifying Mladic. Dodik threatened secession if the resolution passed but claimed victory after the vote, citing the lack of an absolute majority as evidence of failure to label Serbs as a genocidal nation. His claims, however, serve more as political posturing than an accurate reflection of the resolution’s intent.

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Germany faces genocide case over Israel weapon sales

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Nicaragua has asked the UN’s highest court to halt German weapons sales to Israel at the start of a landmark case.

Germany is accused of breaching the UN genocide convention by sending military hardware to Israel and ceasing funding of the UN’s aid agency.

Berlin rejects the claims and will present a defence to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Tuesday.

In 2023 some 30% of Israel’s military equipment purchases came from Germany, totalling €300m ($326m; £257m).

The allegations build on a separate case taken by South Africa in January, where judges in the Hague ordered Israel to take “every possible measure” to avoid genocidal acts. The court also ordered Hamas to release all hostages taken from Israel during its 7 October attacks immediately.Israel rejects accusations that it is engaging in genocidal acts in its campaign in Gaza, and has insisted it has the right to defend itself.

More than 33,000 have been killed in Israel’s offensive in Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry there says, the majority of them civilians. Gaza is on the brink of famine, with Oxfam reporting that 300,000 people trapped in the north have lived since January on an average of 245 calories a day.

Nicaragua says Germany’s arms sales to Israel, which totalled $326.5m last year – a tenfold increase on 2022 – make it complicit in Israel’s alleged war crimes.

Components for air defence systems and communications equipment accounted for most of the sales, according to the DPA news agency.Germany was also one of 15 Western nations which suspended funding for the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) over allegations that some of the agency’s staff were involved in the 7 October attacks on Israel.

According to papers filed with the ICJ, Nicaragua wants the UN’s top court to order Berlin to halt weapons sales and resume funding of the aid agency, one of the few international bodies still operating in Gaza.

It says in the absence of such measures, “Germany is facilitating the commission of genocide and is failing in its obligation to do everything possible to prevent the commission of genocide”.

Speaking as the trial opened, Alain Pellet, a lawyer for Nicaragua, said it was “urgent that Germany suspend continued sales.

“Germany was and is fully conscious of the risk that the arms it has furnished and continues to furnish to Israel,” he told judges.

Berlin has rejected the allegations, but has remained tight-lipped about its legal strategy ahead of the hearings.

“We note Nicaragua’s lawsuit and we deny the allegations as unjustified”, government spokesman Wolfgang Buechner said.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been a vocal supporter of Israel’s right to self-defence, but he has faced increasing domestic hostility to the continuation of arms sales to the country.

On Sunday, a group of civil servants wrote to the German leader calling on the government to “cease arm deliveries to the Israeli government with immediate effect”.

“Israel is committing crimes in Gaza that are in clear contradiction to international law and thus to the Constitution, which we are bound to as federal civil servants and public employees,” the statement said, citing January’s ICJ ruling.

In January’s case, the ICJ ruled that “at least some of the acts and omissions alleged by South Africa to have been committed by Israel in Gaza appear to be capable of falling within the provisions of the Convention”.

But critics of the case have been quick to highlight that Nicaragua itself has a spotted human rights record, with its government accused of cracking down on opposition. In March, the UK’s mission to the UN accused President Daniel Ortega’s government of a “relentless” crackdown on human rights and civil liberties.

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Call for Russia to Renew Ukraine Grain Deal at Africa Summit

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Egypt’s President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to renew the grain export deal with Ukraine during a summit hosted by Russia.

Al-Sisi emphasized the importance of reviving the deal and finding a swift solution to supply the poorest African countries with grain. Russia had withdrawn from the agreement and subsequently bombed Ukrainian Black Sea ports. In response, Putin blamed the West for failing to fulfill its obligations under the deal and offered to provide Russian grain for free to six African countries.

These countries include Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic, and Eritrea, except Somalia, which is experiencing a severe humanitarian crisis. The summit also saw African leaders urging Putin to consider a peace plan proposed by them to end the war caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The plan calls for recognizing the sovereignty of both Russia and Ukraine, conducting urgent peace talks, and ensuring uninterrupted grain exports. The blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports following the invasion caused a significant amount of grain to be trapped, leading to a surge in world food prices and potential shortages in Middle Eastern and African nations that heavily relied on food imports from Ukraine.

The grain export deal was initially brokered by Turkey and the UN in July 2022, allowing cargo ships to access a designated corridor in the Black Sea for transportation. Ukraine is a major global supplier of crops such as sunflower oil, barley, maize, and wheat.

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Spain coast guard spots boat during search for missing migrant vessel

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The Spanish coast guard has located a boat carrying around 200 migrants that went missing over a week ago. The boat was found 71 miles south of Gran Canaria, and a coast guard vessel has been dispatched for rescue operations.

The fishing boat had departed from a coastal town in southern Senegal, approximately 1,700km away from Tenerife, with 200 people on board, including many children. Two other similar boats carrying additional migrants are also reported missing, with limited information available. This brings the total number of people missing across the three boats to over 300.

The route from West Africa to the Canary Islands is known to be perilous, and last year alone, at least 559 people died attempting to reach the Spanish islands. The exact number of departures and shipwrecks often goes unreported. The migrants attempting this route typically come from countries such as Morocco, Mali, Senegal, the Ivory Coast, and other sub-Saharan nations.

Despite a decrease in the number of unauthorized arrivals in the Canary Islands in 2022 compared to the previous year, the route remains dangerous, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) emphasizes that the flows are still high compared to previous years.

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Ukraine Russia War: Russia’s aggression in Ukraine has sparked fears it will spill over into Poland

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Poland is holding its breath as Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on its doorstep. It is vulnerable on two fronts: the number of refugees entering the country is increasing, and a military base near its Ukrainian border has been attacked.

According to the latest UN figures, over 1.7 million Ukrainians have chosen to flee to Poland as a first responder in one of Europe’s largest refugee crises since World War Two. Some leave, but the majority choose to remain due to cultural, linguistic, or familial ties. As a result, the population of Warsaw, Poland’s capital, has increased by 15% in the last two weeks.

Alarm bells are also ringing in terms of security. Russia bombed a Ukrainian military base in Yavoriv, just 16 kilometres (10 miles) from the Polish border, over the weekend.

For years, Poland has warned the West that Russia was planning to redress the power balance in Europe in its favour. At the time, Polish leaders were dismissed as alarmists. But that is no longer the case. Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish Prime Minister, said on Monday that Ukrainian soldiers needed and deserved Western assistance. He insisted that they were fighting not only for their own liberties, but also for the liberties of their Eastern European neighbours. He also described Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine as part of a calculated geopolitical strategy.

The Western defence alliance’s charter says an attack against one of its nations will be viewed as an attack against all. That would mean a face-off between two global nuclear powers – Russia and the US – something the West is keen to avoid. Moscow too, it hopes.

Rafal Trzaskowski, the mayor of Warsaw and a high-profile political figure, told me that his country was not panicking, but that people were beginning to ask questions, particularly in light of Russia’s missile strike so close to the Polish border and Nato’s suggestion that Russia was planning chemical attacks. The mayor insisted that something urgent be done about the refugee crisis as well.

Mayor Trzaskowski has also urged the UK to “get rid of its red tape” and make it easier for Ukrainian refugees to enter the country.

Poland’s painful past, it could be argued, makes it fearful of the future. The arrival of Ukrainian refugees in this country has brought back memories of war and Soviet occupation. I met Kristina, a Polish pensioner, and her friends in Warsaw this week, who were busy making Ukrainian flag solidarity ribbons. “Kristina explained, “I’m too poor to give money and too old to hold a gun, so I do what I can for the refugees.” Partly because I am concerned about my own future.”

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UNHC for Refugees appeals for the US’s support to address the issue of forced displacement

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A day after the United States got a new government, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees has appealed for the support of the new administration of the Unites States to address the issue of forced displacement across the world.

Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner, says; “We look forward to deepening the strong and trusted partnership with the United States, and to working with the new administration and congress to address the many challenges of forced displacement around the world.”

The refugee crisis is the biggest problem the world is facing at this juncture.

The developed world, especially certain western European countries like Germany and the United Kingdom and certain North American countries such as the United States and Canada, is struggling to handle the issue.

The steady exodus from the under developed world to the developed world is the new normal.

The issue is creating several issues in the developed world in the sense of security as well as in the sense of economy.

What the latest appeal by the UNHC for Refugees implies is that the arm of the UN, which handles the matter of refugee, is interested to work with the developed world, especially the US, to address the global refugee crisis.

Moreover, it also indicates the global organisation views the changed political scenario in the US as a positive development.

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UN calls for measures to protest people stuck in conflict hit region sin Mozambique

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The United Nations has called for urgent intervention of the concerned to protect those who have been trapped in the conflict hit regions in the African country of Mozambique.

The Cabo Delgado province in Mozambique has been captured by Islamist militants. Beheadings and kidnappings have been reported from the region.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has warned that the population was in a desperate situation.

As per the statement made by the official, those who have been trapped in conflict-affected areas have barely any means of survival.

The officer has called on the Mozambican government to guarantee unhindered access for humanitarian agencies.

As many as 3,50,000 people have been displaced due to the conflict since the day the conflict broke out in the region.

It was at least three years before the conflict broke out.

The local population is desperately leaving the region for safer destinations. Around 14,000 people have fled by sea to the provincial capital, Pemba, so far.

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Former Bosnian Serb commander, convicted for genocide, criticises UN court

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Ratko Mladic, who is a former Bosnian Serb commander, has strongly criticised the UN court, while addressing judges in The Hague as part of an appeal against his conviction for genocide and crimes against humanity.

He has called the court a child of Western powers,

Earlier, he was found guilty for his part in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

The massacre is one of the most brutal one the humanity has seen so far. As many as 8,000 Muslims were killed during the massacre.

The former commander denied any involvement in the case saying that he was far away from the town when the massacre happened.

His lawyer has taken the same stand in the UN court also.

The UN court, in which the hearing is at present taking place, is the one which is supposed to consider appeals and remaining cases from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The original ICTY hearing ended in 2017 itself.

The UN court hearing was supposed to begin before the commencement of the Covid-19 issue. Mladic’s health problems and coronavirus restrictions delayed proceedings earlier.

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