(Transcript from World News Radio)
Deep divisions have emerged in the United Nations Security Council over a draft resolution commemorating the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia.
The British-drafted resolution has angered Bosnian Serbs and Serbia, and Russia is promoting an alternative text, ahead of a vote next week.
Kristina Kukolja has the details.
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On July 11, 1995, towards the end of Bosnia's 1992-95 war, Bosnian Serb forces swept into the Srebrenica enclave in eastern Bosnia.
It had been declared by the UN as a supposed "safe haven".
But in the days that followed, more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys sheltering in the enclave were executed by the Bosnian Serbs, and their bodies dumped into pits.
The draft British Security Council resolution strongly condemns the killings, describing it as 'genocide'.
Britain's UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told a Srebrenica memorial event it's important not to try to deny what happened.
"This resolution does not seek to bring up painful divisions, nor point the finger of blame. I'm sure that every Security Council member who reads the text will see that it is balanced. This is the moment for the Security Council to show through this resolution that we are committed to making 'never again' a reality."
Diplomats and survivors of the Srebrenica massacre at the event at UN headquarters observed a moment of silence to honour the victims.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also spoke.
"The atrocious murder of Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica will forever weigh on the collective conscience of the international community. The United Nations, which was founded to prevent such crimes from recurring, failed in its responsibilities to protect the lives of innocent civilians seeking protection from the conflict and violence around them. The UN Secretariat, the Security Council and Member States share the blame."
Serbia acknowledges that a "grave crime" took place in Srebrenica, and in 2010 it adopted a declaration condemning the massacre as it sought closer ties with the West.
But it has stopped short of describing it as genocide, and along with Bosnian Serbs it has sent a letter of protest to the UN, branding the British resolution as "anti-Serb".
US Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, was a 24-year-old journalist in Bosnia when the Srebrenica massacre took place.
She also spoke at the commemoration event.
"Those who deny the genocide in Srebrenica today only embarrass and humiliate themselves. Let me simply appeal to all gathered here that the resolve induced by the horror of Srebrenica be extended not only to commemorating the past, but to do far more to prevent genocide and mass atrocities in the present."
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the ICTY, has ruled the Srebrenica massacre -- the worst mass killing on European soil since World War Two -- was genocide.
The ICTY has convicted a total of 15 people of various crimes in connection with the massacre - with two high-profile trials yet to be completed - those of former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic.
ICTY chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz says it's an insult to the victims not to admit that what occurred was genocide, with more victims still being found and re-buried.
"The tragedy of Srebrenica is in fact the loneliness of survivors, rows of grey stones that grow longer each year, women holding aged photographs of their lost husbands and children, quiet scenes where thousands of lives were extinguished in a few summer days. A community destroyed, lives broken. That is what it means to be a survivor of genocide. It is a pain that only survivors know. But even if we cannot know their pain, we know that it must be recognised. Sadly, some deny the genocide. They close their doors and their hearts to the survivors. But all of us must accept that in July 1995 thousands of men and boys were killed, that tens-of-thousands of women, children and elderly were terrorised, abused and forced from their homes. All of us must accept that there was a deliberate plan to commit genocide."
Russia has criticised the British Security Council resolution, saying it focuses too much on the conflict aspect of what happened in Srebrenica.
It describes the alternative Russian text as "more general and more reconciling".
The Russian text reportedly does not mention the word Srebrenica, let alone genocide.
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