Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is an honour for me, on behalf of Fianna Fáil, to speak on this, the 22nd anniversary of when the Srebrenica massacre began. I remember that day and the reporting of those events when 8,000 Bosnian men and boys were murdered by Bosnian Serb forces under the command of former General Ratko Mladic. The barbaric slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians was compounded by the fact that this was supposed to be a UN safe zone under the protection of approximately 600 Dutch troops. The failure of the UN came at an horrific cost to innocent victims and still casts a dark shadow over the UN and the international community.

The Srebrenica victims were buried in mass graves. In an effort to conceal the war crime, the remains were removed to other sites, with bodies dismembered and dispersed. Last Tuesday, 71 of those people were finally laid to rest in a funeral ceremony. The youngest, Damir Suljic, was only 15 when he was killed. He was buried next to his father, grandfather and uncle. We can only imagine the hurt and loss to that poor man's family and community. It is an honour to have members of the Bosnian community with us in the Gallery.

The United Nations recognised the failure of the international community in responding to the crisis in the former Yugoslavia and, particularly, in Bosnia. We think of Sarajevo and Srebrenica especially. However, crimes were also committed in Croatia in that period. While it was pledged at the time that we would never again witness an atrocity such as Srebrenica - that was to be the lasting testament to the largest massacre of Europeans on European soil since the Second World War - unfortunately we have seen the lack of response from the international community to what has happened in Aleppo, the massacre of Yazidis at Mount Sinjar and the hundreds of thousands if not millions of Christians persecuted in the Middle East. I was shocked to read that the Christian population in Iraq has fallen from 1.4 million to 275,000 in less than ten years. All of us must condemn genocide and persecution of all minorities.

I remember watching events unfold in Srebrenica 22 years ago almost live on television. We keep wondering how the world can continue to let such things happen. If we keep hoping that someone else will do the right thing and if we continue to let history repeat itself, we will continue to fail the thousands who died in Srebrenica and in other genocides. The victims of the Srebrenica genocide and all other genocides deserve better. Therefore, all members of the United Nations and the European Union must not pay lip-service to the principles upon which these organisations were founded but must demonstrate their commitment to them by their actions and convictions.

In order to move on and have real peace and reconciliation, all sides need to acknowledge the extent of the crimes committed in Bosnia, specifically in Srebrenica. It is with regret that many in Republika Srpska and even the first Serb mayor of Srebrenica since this massacre have not been able to agree that this was actually a genocide.

There has to be recognition that this was a genocide, that this was murder perpetrated on the community of Bosniaks simply because they were Muslim. That acknowledgement needs to happen before there will be full reconciliation in the region. Twenty-two years later, we must look in an honest way to see how the European Union, the United Nations and the international community respond to current crises today and, as they occur, respond to genocide and those who perpetrate them and to protect innocent civilians. That will be the testament to those who were brutally murdered in Srebrenica.

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