BOSNIA - REQUEST FOR GUIDANCE ON FINDING OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L SARAJEVO 000596 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR (DICARLO),EUR/SCE (HOH, SAINZ, FOOKS, STINCHCOMB),L E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/14/2017 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL KAWC BK SUBJECT: BOSNIA - REQUEST FOR GUIDANCE ON FINDING OF GENOCIDE IN SREBRENICA REF: SARAJEVO 456 Classified By: Ambassador Douglas McElhaney. Reasons 1.4(b) and (d). ¶1. (U) This is an action request. Please see paragraph four. U.S. Must Vote on Whether to Acknowledge Geneocide -------------- -------------- ¶2. (C) At the March 12 Foundation of Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial and Cemetery Executive Board Meeting, ("Foundation") Amor Masovic, Co-Chairman of the Foundation, proposed changing the name of the Foundation to include the phrase "victims of genocide." This proposal stems from the recent verdict of the International Court of Justice confirming that genocide took place in Srebrenica in July, 1995. The Ambassador is a voting member of the Executive Board and will be asked to vote on the name change initiative at the next Executive Board meeting, which could be held as early as next week. Based on their comments at the March 12 Foundation meeting, we anticipate that all other Executive Board voting members including the Chair Beriz Belkic, Co-Chair Amor Masovic, Bosnia and Herzegovina's High Representative Christian Schwarz-Schilling, BiH Islamic Community representative Reisu-l-Ulema Mustafa effendi Ceric, International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) Director General Kathryne Bomberger and the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees will support the name change. Background on Srebrenica Foundation -------------- ¶3. (U) The Foundation was established in May 2001 by then High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch, who designated the battery factory site in Potocari as a memorial and cemetery. (Note: More than 5000 Bosnian Muslims sought refuge in the battery factory when General Ratko Mladic entered Srebrenica to claim the town for Bosnian Serbs in early July 1995. The factory was then used as the staging ground for the massacre of more than 7000 men and boys by General Mladic and his Army of Republika Srpska forces. End Note.) When the Foundation was established, victims' associations, including the Mothers of Srebrenica, insisted the USG have a permanent seat on the Executive Board. In August, 2002 U.S. Ambassador donated $1 million to the Foundation. Since 2001, more than 2000 Srebrenica victims have been laid to final rest in the cemetery and plans for a memorial room project have been finalized. Action Request -------------- ¶4. (C) Post requests guidance on two separate but related issues. First, we request Department concurrence to vote in favor of renaming the Foundation, the "Foundation of Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial and Cemetery of Victims of Genocide." Second, we request a Department determination whether genocide occurred in Srebrenica and whether the USG can publicly acknowledge that fact. It goes without saying that if the U.S. cannot make a determination that the 1995 massacres in Srebrenica were genocide and we must either oppose or abstain the motion to rename the Foundation, it will have political repercussions in Bosnia and damage our ability to advance U.S. objectives in the country. MCELHANEY