Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The wars in the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995 and again from 1998 to 2001 were profoundly shocking for Europe and the whole world. This time 22 years ago, in July 1995, we saw the appalling events of the breakdown of the Yugoslav federation. They were epitomised by the mass murder of more than 8,000 young Bosnian men and boys around the town of Srebrenica. I recall, as I am sure does the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, the sadness and anger felt in this House when Deputies first got a chance to raise those appalling events. I remember an especially important intervention by the former Minister and Deputy, Alan Shatter. It is right that this House should once again remember the tragic victims of genocide and resolve that such cruel and devastating crimes should never be allowed to happen.

As Deputy Boyd Barrett has said, accountability is very important. Those responsible for such crimes should always be held to account, as happened with some of the perpetrators of atrocities in the former Yugoslavia. Today, every day of the week we see events in places like Mosul, Aleppo, South Sudan and east Congo which also fill us with horror. There is a clear necessity to reform and restructure the United Nations, given the continued history of failure.

Both the European Union and the UN failed badly in addressing the rise of atavistic nationalism and racism which provoked the breakup of Yugoslavia and the manner in which the constituent regions separated. Germany and Austria, in particular, seemed to encourage the breakaway of Slovenia and later Croatia without any consideration for the fragile interethnic and intercultural tensions within the former Yugoslavia, where once the Croatian-born leader, Josip Broz Tito, made his federation a leading non-aligned state. I recall a number of refugees and families arriving in Dublin Bay North from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Many of the families who came here had connections in all three communities. Particularly sad were their memories of Orthodox Serbs, Muslim Bosnians and Croatian Catholics living very peacefully beside each other and socialising easily together before they were engulfed in this holocaust. The cost of the horrendous mayhem and murder in the former Yugoslavia remains a stain on Europe down to today.

Conservative estimates put the death toll at 140,000, with at least 100,000 people dying in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 14,000 of whom died during the siege of Sarajevo alone. These figures are truly appalling figures. A further 2 million people were displaced and there were 2.5 million refugees. The treatment of women and children during this conflict is an appalling stain on the recent history of Europe. Up to 50,000 women, most of whom were Bosnian Muslims, were raped.

The Srebrenica massacre of July 1995 stands out as a depraved crime of genocide comparable with some of the worst offences of the Second World War. The Srebrenica enclave was under intense attack from 1992 to 1993. Even though the Security Council declared it a safe area in 1993, the lawless and intense violence of the Bosnian Serb army intensified in early 1995. The failure of the UN Protection Force to protect the residents of Srebrenica and refugees in Potočari between 6 and 11 July 1995 and subsequently remains an indictment of the organisations and of the structure of the UN. Similarly, NATO was badly at fault. The massacre of more than 8,000 Bosnian men and boys was perpetuated by units of the Bosnian Serb army, known as the VRS, under the command of General Ratko Mladic. The former Serbian paramilitary group known as the Scorpions was also involved. The two Bosnian Serb leaders, Radovan Karadzic and Momčilo Krajišnik, pressed on with the genocidal attack on Srebrenica. Deputy Boyd Barrett mentioned the former President of Croatia, Franjo Tudjman, who managed not to be indicted. It seems from the history of the appalling carnage in the former Yugoslavia that he should definitely have been indicted. It is entirely fitting that Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic and - after his loss in the 2000 Serbian presidential election - Slobodan Milosevic, were all indicted for this crime of genocide. We need accountability for this appalling event, which nobody would have thought could have happened so recently in Europe. We should also remember the great suffering of the victims and their families. We have to ensure this kind of horrendous event never happens again in Europe or anywhere else on this planet.

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