Category: 2. World

Why UN’s Rohingya conference must deliver

In September, the UN will convene a high-level conference to address what is arguably one of the world’s most protracted and neglected humanitarian catastrophes: the Rohingya crisis.

Eight years after more than 740,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar’s brutal military “clearance operations,” the refugee camps in Bangladesh remain overcrowded, under-resourced and increasingly vulnerable to violence, disease and despair. This conference is not just another diplomatic event — it must be a turning point that leads to real action, justice and a long-term solution.

The roots of this conference lie in a sustained diplomatic effort, particularly by Bangladesh’s interim government under Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohammed Yunus. The failure of earlier efforts, such as the 2018 tripartite agreement between the UN, Myanmar and Bangladesh, highlighted the need for a new approach. The refugees themselves refused to return to a country that denied them citizenship, stripped them of their rights and offered no security guarantees. The UN, recognizing the urgency, passed a resolution in late 2024 calling for a high-level summit to create a “comprehensive, innovative, concrete and time-bound plan” for voluntary, dignified repatriation. With the support of UN officials, including special envoy Julie Bishop, the September conference is intended to be that long-overdue platform.

The current situation is untenable. Camps in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char now host more than 1.5 million Rohingya. Humanitarian aid has sharply declined, with the World Food Program recently warning of severe malnutrition after food rations were cut due to lack of funding. Security has also deteriorated, with the rise of armed groups such as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army and mounting intercommunal tensions. Education and mental health services are collapsing. A generation of Rohingya children is growing up without formal schooling, legal status or hope for the future.

This conference is expected to be different. For the first time, there are strong indications that Rohingya voices will be front and center in the discussions. That is long overdue. Past international efforts have too often spoken about the Rohingya, rather than with them. Inclusion is essential. Any roadmap designed without their participation will fail again. This time, the UN appears committed to ensuring that Rohingya leaders and civil society groups play a meaningful role in shaping outcomes.

We can also expect a sharper focus on enforceable commitments rather than vague diplomatic language. There is growing recognition that abstract promises and goodwill gestures are no longer acceptable. The conference is expected to deliver measurable benchmarks for citizenship reform in Myanmar, timelines for monitored repatriation and mechanisms to ensure international oversight and accountability.

Justice will be another central theme. The Myanmar military’s atrocities against the Rohingya have been well documented and described as genocide by multiple independent bodies. Without a clear pathway to legal accountability — through the International Criminal Court, universal jurisdiction cases or a special tribunal — there can be no sustainable peace.

There will be serious discussion about the future of humanitarian aid. The existing model, focused solely on emergency relief, is no longer viable. The UN and donors must transition toward a development-oriented framework that builds resilience, offers vocational training and integrates mental health services. Long-term funding should be pooled into a dedicated UN trust fund to stabilize the camps and support host communities in Bangladesh, which have borne an extraordinary burden for nearly a decade.

For the first time, there are strong indications that Rohingya voices will be front and center in the discussions

Dr. Azeem Ibrahim

For Bangladesh, this conference is both an opportunity and a strategic challenge. The government should use the platform to secure binding international commitments — both financial and political. But it must also take difficult steps domestically to maximize the conference’s impact. It should begin by improving the rule of law in the camps.

The rise in violence, gang activity and extortion has made many areas unsafe. The security response must be firm but lawful, with accountability mechanisms to prevent abuses. Community-based policing and legal aid centers should be established. At the same time, Dhaka should allow greater Rohingya participation in camp administration and policymaking, including women and youth leaders.

Bangladesh must work closely with the UN to reframe the Rohingya presence not simply as a burden, but as a challenge that can be addressed through smart diplomacy and targeted investment. Informal economic integration, such as allowing Rohingya to engage in controlled, supervised livelihoods, could ease dependency on aid and reduce tensions with host communities.

The government should also push for the expansion of third-country resettlement programs, especially for vulnerable groups such as women, orphans and the elderly. The US, Canada, the EU and Australia must step up their responsibilities in this regard.

The key, ultimately, lies in aligning repatriation plans with genuine reform in Myanmar. The Arakan Army’s growing control of Rakhine State and its recent signals of willingness to engage on the Rohingya issue open a new window. The UN must support confidence-building measures, including peacekeeping deployments and regional monitoring missions. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, India and China must be part of this effort. And pressure should be applied on Myanmar to lift discriminatory laws and restore full citizenship rights to the Rohingya.

The upcoming UN conference must deliver more than words. It must be the start of a new era of policy and action, built on justice, accountability and the full inclusion of the Rohingya. If handled correctly, it could serve as a model for how the international community addresses long-term displacement crises. But if it fails, the consequences will be severe. Another generation of Rohingya will be condemned to statelessness, exclusion and despair. The stakes could not be higher.

• Dr. Azeem Ibrahim is the director of special initiatives at the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington, DC. X: @AzeemIbrahim

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News’ point of view

CNN
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There is a “high probability” that US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will meet this year, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday.

“The odds are high,” Rubio told journalists gathered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Friday. “I think both sides want to see it happen.”

Rubio said he was unable to provide a date for any potential meeting but said there was a “strong desire on both sides to do it.” He added that it’s necessary to build the “right atmosphere” ahead of any such meeting in order to enable concrete deliverables.

The US top diplomat met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Kuala Lumpur on Friday for the first in-person meeting between the two foreign ministers, which comes as the US and China navigate trade frictions – and compete for influence in Asia.

The roughly hour-long meeting was “very constructive” and “positive,” Rubio said on Friday evening local time.

“We’re two big, powerful countries, and there are always going to be issues that we disagree on,” Rubio said, adding “I thought it was (a) very constructive, positive meeting, and (there’s) a lot of work to do.”

Both Rubio and Wang were attending regional meetings in the Malaysian capital this week, where foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, gathered alongside regional partners including Russia, Japan, South Korea and Australia.

The US and China have endured fraught trade relations since Trump’s return to office earlier this year, escalating and then de-escalating a tit-for-tat tariff spat sparked by the US president’s global trade war and sparring over export controls.

Tensions were eased as the two sides agreed to a trade framework during talks between negotiators in London last month, and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this week he would meet with Chinese counterparts to continue discussions in the coming weeks. A 90-day pause negotiated between the two sides in May was set to expire in August.

Chinese officials have decried the US tariffs and threatened to retaliate if the US reaches deals with other trade partners at the expense of Chinese interests – a sign that Beijing sees the US as using agreements with other countries as a means to squeeze its economy.

But both sides signaled that the meeting between Wang and Rubio was a productive one with a positive tone – and a step toward expanding cooperation, rather than frictions, between them.

On Friday, Rubio said his meeting with Wang gave the two sides an opportunity to identify areas to work together, but he did not detail areas of possible cooperation.

“That was our message – that (we have) the opportunity here to achieve some strategic stability and identify areas where we can cooperate together on and build better communications and a working trust,” he said.

The Chinese foreign ministry called Friday’s meeting “positive, pragmatic and constructive” in a statement published after Rubio spoke to the media.

Both sides “agreed to strengthen diplomatic channels and communication and dialogue at all levels in all fields,” the statement said. It also said Wang reiterated calls for Washington to view China with an “objective, rational and pragmatic attitude” and treat it in an “equal” manner.

Trump’s trade war has added a layer of complexity to Rubio’s first trip to Asia as Washington’s top diplomat. The US in recent days sent letters to a number of countries announcing the tariff rates they would face in less than a month unless they strike trade deals with the US.

Eight of the 10 countries in ASEAN – along with South Korea and Japan – will face tariffs from the US on August 1, if the implementation deadline holds.

That’s created an opening for Chinese Foreign Minister Wang, who has looked to project a message that China remains a stable economic partner for the region. In meetings with ASEAN counterparts Thursday, Wang said China “always regards” ASEAN as a “priority” for China’s regional diplomacy.

US government officials have positioned Rubio’s trip as part of an effort to show that Washington remains committed to the region, where China is a key economic partner but also has friction with nations like the Philippines over its aggression in the South China Sea.

“In his first trip to Asia as secretary of state, Secretary Rubio is focused on reaffirming the United States’ commitment to advancing a free, open and secure Indo-Pacific region,” Tammy Bruce, the State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement earlier this week.

On Friday, Rubio pushed back on the idea that US tariffs could create an opportunity for China economically in the region, and said Washington is committed to addressing “tremendous trade imbalances” with countries that have accumulated over the past few decades.

“We’re resetting tariff levels with virtually every country in the world,” he told journalists, noting that such imbalances are “unfair to America and American workers.”

Last year, the US notched a $295 billion goods trade deficit with China, according to data from the US Census Bureau.

“I think countries are going to trade with multiple countries. We don’t view this as an opening for anyone. We don’t view it that way. We view it as an opportunity to reset global trade in a way that’s fair for Americans after two or three decades of unfairness,” he said.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in recent days said his country needs to wean itself off of dependence on the US – particularly citing security – as Tokyo faces the prospect of new tariffs. Rubio pointed to active US-Japan military exercises before making the case that such a move would be positive.

“The idea that Japan’s military would become more capable is not something we would be offended by; it’s something we would actually be encouraged by,” Rubio said.

CNN’s Anna Cooban and Shawn Deng contributed to this report.

Benjamin Netanyahu arrived back in Israel on Friday without a ceasefire in the Gaza war despite heady predictions from US and Israeli officials that this week could provide a breakthrough in negotiations. But he did not come home completely empty-handed.

The Israeli PM’s visit was his third since Donald Trump’s inauguration, with several high-profile meetings at the White House, a nomination for Trump to receive the Nobel peace prize, and suggestions from Trump and the special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, that peace could be achieved in a week.

But as Netanyahu’s trip ended, no clear results had been achieved. Witkoff postponed a trip to Doha on Tuesday as it became clear that the negotiations had not reached a point where they could produce a ceasefire agreement.

While Netanyahu repeated a refrain that a ceasefire could be announced within days, a deal to bring peace to more than 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip remained elusive.

“I hope we can complete it in a few days,” Netanyahu said during an appearance on Newsmax, a conservative, pro-Trump news network on Wednesday. “We’ll probably have a 60-day ceasefire. Get the first batch [of hostages] out and then use the 60 days to try to negotiate an end to this.”

By Thursday, when he attended a memorial service for two Israeli embassy staff killed in Washington, Netanyahu said Israel would not compromise on its demands for Hamas to disband. “I am promoting a move that will result in a significant liberation, but only on the conditions Israel demands: Hamas disarm, Gaza demilitarise,” he said. “If it is not achieved through diplomacy, it will be achieved by force.”

Several officials suggested during the week that only a single sticking point remained between negotiators in Doha: the extent of a withdrawal by the Israel Defense Forces that would follow the release of some of the hostages being held by Hamas. The White House had pushed back against an initial map that would have left Israel with significant zones of control in Gaza, which Witkoff had compared to a “Smotrich plan”, referring to the hardline Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich. Israel reportedly redrew that map to make it more palatable to the US administration.

But Hamas has said there were other disagreements, including negotiations over whether the Gaza Humanitarian Fund, an Israeli and US-backed logistics group, would be allowed to continue to deliver food to the territory (the UN said on Friday that 798 people had been killed trying to reach GHF sites since its introduction in May) and whether Israel would agree to a permanent truce, which it has said it would not. US mediators sought to bridge the gap by telling Qatari intermediaries they would guarantee the ceasefire’s continuation after 60 days as negotiations continued.

The upshot is that while Netanyahu leaves the US without a ceasefire, he has managed his relationship with Trump through high-profile assurances that he is seeking a peace in Gaza, while maintaining a status quo that members of his rightwing coalition, including the ministers Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, have said is preferable to a peace deal.

For Netanyahu, the trip produced images that reinforced Israeli claims there was “no daylight” between him and Trump, and came as the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, announced a decision to impose sanctions on Francesca Albanese, a UN expert on the occupied Palestinian territories, for urging the international criminal court to investigate Israeli officials and US companies over the Gaza war.

Trump’s frustrations with Netanyahu appeared to be boiling over a month ago as the US president sought to negotiate a truce between Iran and Israel, which had been trading airstrikes and missile barrages as Israel sought to dismantle the Iranian nuclear programme.

“I’m not happy with Israel,” he said on the White House lawn. “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.”

That recalled remarks by Robert Gates, a former US secretary of defence, about successive White House administrations’ difficulties in managing an ally in the region that also had considerable political influence in the US.

“Every president I worked for, at some point in his presidency, would get so pissed off at the Israelis that he couldn’t speak,” Gates said.

But a full breach with the US would have been disastrous for Netanyahu, who is managing his own difficult coalition and has been targeted in a graft investigation at home that was again delayed as a result of his international travel. And, after joint strikes against Iran, the Israeli PM was keen to show that the two men were in lockstep, while giving the Trump administration an opportunity to show it was working toward a Gaza peace.

Elliott Abrams, the senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, said the Trump administration had sought, as it did during the first short-lived ceasefire, to bring “pressure to bear on Israel directly” through discussions with Netanyahu and his chief lieutenant, Ron Dermer, and “trying to bring pressure on Hamas mostly through the Qataris, when there are these talks in Doha”.

He added: “Whether that pressure is effective is unclear.”

BEIRUT: An Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon on Friday killed one person, the Lebanese health ministry reported, with Israel saying it had targeted a man accused of helping smuggle weapons from Iran.

The attack was the latest in Lebanon despite a months-long ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah there.

In a statement, the health ministry said that an “Israeli enemy” drone strike on a car near al-Numairiya, in Nabatiyeh district, killed one person and wounded five others.

The Israeli military later said it had killed Mohammad Shoaib, whom it accused of having aided in the smuggling of weapons to Lebanon and the occupied West Bank.

Israeli drone kills one in south Lebanon: ministry

Israel has kept up regular strikes in Lebanon, particularly in the south, since a November 27 ceasefire meant to end over a year of hostilities with Hezbollah that left the group severely weakened.

Under the agreement, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani River, around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border with Israel, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the area.

The ceasefire requires Israel to fully withdraw its troops, but it has kept them in five locations in south Lebanon that it deems strategic.

On Friday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said that while he was open to peaceful relations with Israel, normalisation of ties was “not currently part of Lebanese foreign policy”.

Some three million Afghans could return to their country this year, a UN refugee official said on Friday, warning that the repatriation flow is placing intense pressure on an already major humanitarian crisis.

Iran and Pakistan have introduced new policies affecting displaced Afghans, with Tehran already having given 4m “illegal” Afghans until July 6 to leave Iranian territory.

“What we are seeing is the undignified, disorganised and massive exodus of Afghans from both countries, which is generating enormous pressures on the homeland that is willing to receive them and yet utterly unprepared to do so,” United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative in Afghanistan Arafat Jamal said during a video press conference from Kabul.

“Of concern to us is this scale, the intensity and the manner in which returns are occurring.”

Over 1.6m Afghans have already returned from Pakistan and Iran this year, the large majority from Iran, Jamal added. The figure already exceeds the UNHCR’s initial forecasts of 1.4m for 2025.

The office of the High Commissioner now estimates 3m coming into Afghanistan this year, Jamal said.

The UN agency said over 30,000 people per day have streamed across the Islam Qala border into Afghanistan, with 50,000 crossing on July 4 alone.

“Many of these returnees are arriving having been abruptly uprooted and having undergone an arduous, exhausting and degrading journey. They arrive tired, disoriented, brutalised and often in despair,” Jamal said.

The United Nations has taken emergency measures to reinforce water and sanitation systems intended to serve 7,000 to 10,000 people per day, as well as vaccinations and nutrition services.

Many who have crossed the border have reported pressure from Iranian authorities, including arrests and expulsions.

GENEVA: The UN rights office said on Friday it had recorded at least 798 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and near convoys run by other relief groups.

The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation.

After the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians trying to reach the GHF’s aid hubs in zones where Israeli forces operate, the United Nations has called its aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.

“(From May 27) up until the seventh of July, we’ve recorded 798 killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, and 183 presumably on the route of aid convoys,” UN rights office (OHCHR) spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a regular media briefing in Geneva.

The GHF, which began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May after Israel lifted an 11-week-old aid blockade, told Reuters on Friday the UN figures were “false and misleading.” It has repeatedly denied that deadly incidents have occurred at its sites.

“The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys,” a GHF spokesperson said.

The OHCHR said it bases its figures on a range of sources such as information from hospitals in the Gaza Strip, cemeteries, families, Palestinian health authorities, NGOs and its partners on the ground.

Most of the injuries to Palestinians in the vicinity of aid distribution hubs recorded by OHCHR since May 27 were gunshot wounds, Shamdasani said.

“We’ve raised concerns about atrocity crimes having been committed and the risk of further atrocity crimes being committed where people are lining up for essential supplies such as food,” she said.

Israel has repeatedly said its forces operate near the relief aid sites to prevent supplies falling into the hands of militants it has been fighting in the Gaza war triggered by the Hamas-led cross-border attack on October 7, 2023.

The GHF said on Friday it had delivered more than 70 million meals to hungry Gaza Palestinians in five weeks, and that other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs.The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has previously cited instances of violent pillaging of aid, while the UN World Food Programme said last week that most trucks carrying food assistance into Gaza had been intercepted by “hungry civilian communities.”

There is an acute shortage of food and other basic supplies 21 months into Israel’s military campaign in during which much of the enclave has been reduced to rubble and most of its 2.3 million inhabitants displaced.

The Pentagon said on Friday that an Iranian ballistic missile struck a major US military base in Qatar last month, with satellite imagery revealing some damage to equipment at the facility.

A June 25 image of Al Udeid Air Base, captured by the US commercial satellite imaging company Planet Labs PBC and reviewed by Business Insider, shows a small circle of scorched earth and damage to an adjacent building.

The scorch mark had been the site of a geodesic dome, which can be seen clearly in an image captured just two days earlier. The adjacent building also had no visible damage in the June 23 photo, taken just hours before Iran launched a barrage of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles at Al Udeid in retaliation after the US bombed three of Tehran’s nuclear facilities.

Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesperson, told BI in a statement that an Iranian ballistic missile impacted Al Udeid during the June 23 attack, causing “minimal damage to equipment and structures on the base.” It’s the first time a US official has acknowledged that Tehran scored a direct hit on the base.

However, it’s not entirely clear whether the missile damaged the dome and the building or if debris from an interception caused it.

The $15 million structure, which encloses secure communications equipment, was installed at Al Udeid in 2016. The modernization enterprise terminal, as the Air Force calls it, provides voice, video, and data services to link troops in the Middle East with military leaders in other regions.

The US military said shortly after the attack that the US and Qatari forces “defeated” it using Patriot air defense systems. President Donald Trump said Iran gave him a heads-up about the strike and that 13 of the 14 missiles were shot down — the other one was said to be heading in a “nonthreatening direction.”

US officials had previously acknowledged the possibility that there may have been damage at Al Udeid.

“We’re aware that something — there are reports of something getting through,” Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters a few days after the attack.

“What we do know is there was a lot of metal flying around,” Caine said. “Between attacking missiles being hit by Patriots, boosters from attacking missiles being hit by Patriots, the Patriots themselves flying around, and the debris from those Patriots hitting the ground, there was a lot of metal flying around, and yet our US air defenders had only seconds to make complex decisions with strategic impact.”

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Iran International, a Persian-language TV channel based in the UK, first reported on the satellite imagery of the damage at Al Udeid.

Overall, the attack on Al Udeid did not cause significant damage and was relatively limited in nature, suggesting that Iran may have been aiming to avoid further escalation with the US.

“There were no injuries,” said Parnell, whose remarks were first reported by Air & Space Forces Magazine. “Al Udeid Air Base remains fully operational and capable of conducting its mission, alongside our Qatari partners, to provide security and stability in the region.”

Last month’s strikes against Al Udeid came shortly before Israel and Iran reached a ceasefire to end 12 days of trading attacks against each other.

Israeli forces carried out sweeping airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear and military sites and targeted a number of senior commanders. Tehran retaliated by launching hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel.

The status of Iran’s nuclear program remains in question, with varying assessments of how far it has been set back by American and Israeli strikes.

SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina: Thousands of people from Bosnia and around the world gathered in Srebrenica to mark the 30th anniversary of a massacre there of more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim boys and men — an atrocity that has been acknowledged as Europe’s only genocide after the Holocaust.

Seven newly identified victims of the 1995 massacre, including two 19-year-old men, were laid to rest in a collective funeral at a vast cemetery near Srebrenica Friday, next to more than 6,000 victims already buried there. Such funerals are held annually for the victims who are still being unearthed from dozens of mass graves around the town.

Relatives of the victims, however, often can bury only partial remains of their loved ones as they are typically found in several different mass graves, sometimes kilometers (miles) apart. Such was the case of Mirzeta Karic, who was waiting to bury her father.

“Thirty years of search and we are burying a bone,” she said, crying by her father’s coffin which was wrapped in green cloth in accordance with Islamic tradition.

“I think it would be easier if I could bury all of him. What can I tell you, my father is one of the 50 (killed) from my entire family,” she added.

July 11, 1995, is the day when the killings started after Bosnian Serb fighters overran the eastern Bosnian enclave in the final months of the interethnic war in the Balkan country.

After taking control of the town that was a protected UN safe zone during the war, Bosnian Serb fighters separated Bosniak Muslim men and boys from their families and brutally executed them in just several days. The bodies were then dumped in mass graves around Srebrenica which they later dug up with bulldozers, scattering the remains among other burial sites to hide the evidence of their war crimes.

The UN General Assembly last year adopted a resolution to commemorate the Srebrenica genocide on the July 11 anniversary.

Scores of international officials and dignitaries attended the commemoration ceremonies and the funeral. Among them were European Council President Antonio Costa and Britain’s Duchess of Edinburgh, Sophie, who said that “our duty must be to remember all those lost so tragically and to never let these things happen again.”

Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said he felt “humbled” because UN troops from the Netherlands were based in Srebrenica when Bosnian Serbs stormed the town.

“I see to what extent commemorating Srebrenica genocide is important,” he said.

In an emotional speech, Munira Subasic, who heads the Mothers of Srebrenica association, urged Europe and the world to “help us fight against hatred, against injustice and against killings.”

Subasic, who lost her husband and youngest son in Srebrenica along with more than 20 relatives, told Europe to “wake up.”

“As I stand here many mothers in Ukraine and Palestine are going through what we went through in 1995,” Subasic said, referring to ongoing conflicts. “It’s the 21st century but instead of justice, fascism has woken up.”

On the eve of the anniversary, an exhibition was inaugurated displaying personal items belonging to the victims that were found in the mass graves over the years.

The conflict in Bosnia erupted in 1992, when Bosnian Serbs took up arms in a rebellion against the country’s independence from the former Yugoslavia and with an aim to create their own state and eventually unite with neighboring Serbia. More than 100,000 people were killed and millions displaced before a US-brokered peace agreement was reached in 1995.

Bosnia remains ethnically split while both Bosnian Serbs and neighboring Serbia refuse to acknowledge that the massacre in Srebrenica was a genocide despite rulings by two UN courts. Bosnian Serb political and military leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, along with many others, were convicted and sentenced for genocide.

Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic expressed condolences on X while calling the Srebrenica massacre a “terrible crime.”

“There is no room in Europe — or anywhere else — for genocide denial, revisionism, or the glorification of those responsible,” European Council President Costa said in his speech. “Denying such horrors only poisons our future.”