Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In the summer of 1995, two years after being designated a United Nations safe haven, the Bosnian town of Srebrenica became the scene of one of the worst massacres of the Bosnian war. This was a war that came about as the direct result of the breakup of the former Republic of Yugoslavia. It was a war that was the most devastating conflict in Europe since the end of the Second World War.

This was a war that we saw on our TV screens. Forces under the command of Ratko Mladic attacked UN peacekeepers and took UN troops as hostages. Those who perpetrated this massacre deserve to be condemned and prosecuted.

However, in speaking to this motion moved by the member for Melbourne Ports, we must be careful not to demonise the Serbian nation and the Serbian community. We should also acknowledge that atrocities were committed by all sides in this war and against all sectors of the population of Bosnia-Herzegovina. We should also acknowledge that thousands of Serbs were massacred, expelled from their homes, tortured and raped during these wars within the former Yugoslavia.

We should also realise that to demonise one side of this many-sided civil war will only encourage more hatred and violence throughout the former Yugoslavia and will not provide the needed road to reconciliation. We should also congratulate the modern Serbian nation for coming to terms with these past wrongs and for actively pursuing those guilty of war crimes. As their president, Boris Tadic, said when the last of the major war criminal suspects was only recently arrested:

We have closed a burdensome and gloomy page of our history. We did this for the people of Serbia, for other nations, for the victims and for reconciliation.

The United Nations must also shoulder a large share of responsibility for allowing this massacre to take place, because it occurred under the noses of their troops. In November 1999 the UN released a highly critical report on its performance, stating:

Through error, misjudgment and the inability to recognise the scope of evil confronting us we failed to do our part to save the people of Srebrenica—

although, to be fair to the UN, it was the NATO air strikes against the Serbs that finally brought this conflict to an end.

Although it is important that we never forget the events and the history of Srebrenica, we should equally not forget the events of the entire Bosnian War following the break-up of Yugoslavia, for this raises important lessons that must be learned for any future UN intervention where a major state disintegrates. The events were a genocide, the perpetrators have been brought to justice, and these events should never be forgotten—for the peace of the families of the victims and for our society as a whole. Now should also be the time to encourage and celebrate the newfound friendships between all Bosnian ethnic communities—the Muslims, the Serbs and the Croats—to ensure that the horrors of the Bosnian War are never repeated.

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