Neue Zürcher Zeitung: Large number of abstentions on Resolution on Srebrenica - success of Serbian diplomacy

A reputable Swiss newspaper indicates that 68 countries abstained from voting, including Greece and Slovakia, which have been on the side of Serbia on the issue of Kosovo.

It is noted that several Muslim countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, Oman and the Maldives, abstained from voting.

It is added that Belgrade already demonstrated during the campaign that it wanted to induce countries to withdraw the recognition of Kosovo, that it has the ability to exert influence on the international stage, especially on the so-called global south.

Neue Zürcher Zeitung states that the UN General Assembly did adopt the introduction of the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Srebrenica Genocide, but that the large number of abstentions is a success for Belgrade.

Belgrade portrayed the vote as a vote on national honor and once again used the narrative of Serbia as the constant scapegoat of world history, which is unilaterally attributed responsibility for all the problems in the Balkans.

Serbia, the paper added, indicated that Serbs were also victims, that there were Croat and Muslim criminals, as well as the NATO attack on the country. That is not wrong, but the Resolution does not talk about Serbia or Serbs, nor about collective guilt, but about the victims of Srebrenica, the paper notes.

The resolution was submitted by Germany and Rwanda, two countries where dealing with genocide is central to their understanding of the state.

Vučić, the newspaper adds, in his speech criticized Germany for feeling that it has a moral right to teach lessons to everyone who disagrees with it, as well as for the fact that there are international days of remembrance for the Holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda, but not for the Armenians.

For whom this result represents a success - that is in the eye of the beholder, the paper notes, stating that the large number of abstentions can certainly be considered a success of Serbian diplomacy.

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