Russia vetoed a proposed United Nations Security Council resolution intended to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the genocide at Srebrenica, which took the lives of at least 8000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys. They were slaughtered in an area that UN peacekeepers were supposed to protect but had abandoned, as armed Bosnian Serbs overran the UN positions. The massacre was the worst to occur on European soil since the end of World War II.
The United Kingdom had drafted the text of the proposed Srebrenica commemoration resolution, which it submitted for a vote on July 8 after having failed to satisfy Russia’s demands for certain changes. Though supported by a majority of the Security Council members, the proposed resolution was said to be too “confrontational and politically-motivated," according to Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin in explaining the reason for Russia’s veto. "The draft that we have in front of us will not help peace in the Balkans but rather doom this region to tension," Churkin added.
