Canada Condemns the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide, Statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon. Lawrence Cannon

Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada
Published: August 10, 2010  

Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ottawa, Canada K1A 0G2

Canada Condemns the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide

July 28 2010.

Professor Emir Ramic
President of the Congress of North American Bosniaks - Canadian Branch
and Chair of the Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada
6-7 Southside Place
Hamilton ON L9C 7W6

Dear Mr. Ramic:

Thank you for your correspondence of May 17 and 25, June 3, 14, 15 and 17, 2010, requesting that Canada acknowledge the Srebrenica massacre with a parliamentary resolution.

The Government of Canada would support a parliamentary resolution acknowledging the massacre and establishing a Srebrenica Remembrance Day in Canada. Unfortunately, for procedural reasons, Motion M-416 and Bill C-533, which would have established a Srebrenica Remembrance Day, could not be presented in Parliament before the summer recess.

Canada condemns the atrocities committed in Srebrenica in July 1995, as well as all other forms of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and is a vigorous defender of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Canada fully supports the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the judicial bodies in this region in prosecuting all those who committed such crimes. Canada continues to work in cooperation with other states and international institutions to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable for their crimes. We hope to see such offenders brought to justice, and in particular fugitive Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb leader who oversaw the Srebrenica massacre.

As this year marks the fifteenth anniversary of the genocide committed in Srebrenica, I issued a press release to commemorate the anniversary on behalf of the Government of Canada. The statement acknowledges the massacre in Srebrenica as a genocide. You may read my statement at

http://www.international.gc.ca/media/aff/news-communiques/2010/217.aspx?lang=eng

Sincerely,

SIGNED

The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, P.C., M.P.