MPs from Montenegro’s Bosniak Party have submitted an initiative to parliament to adopt a resolution with which the country would officially recognise that genocide took place in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995.

The text of the draft resolution states that the Parliament of Montenegro confirms that genocide, in which more than 8,000 Muslim civilians were killed, took place in Srebrenica in July 1995 and that the country condemns statements, acts, and policies that deny this or question whether it happened.

The document also includes an initiative for July 11 to be declared the Day of Remembrance of Srebrenica.

The leader of the Bosniak Party, Ervin Ibrahimovic, called on all Montenegrin parties to participate in drafting the text of the resolution.

“By adopting a resolution recognizing the genocide in Srebrenica, Montenegro will once again make a strong and important step forward in maintaining lasting peace in the region. We must stop the silence, denial, falsification of historical facts, and even the distancing of the genocide in Srebrenica,” Ibrahimovic said.

Montenegro and its society must face the past and help the victims of the genocide achieve justice, he stressed.

“That is the task of Montenegro, which should remain its the course of being a factor of stability in the region. This is a test of our society on whether we are truly in favour of European and NATO integration,” he said, adding that the US Senate recently passed a Resolution on BiH which says that genocide took place in Srebrenica.

He also noted that there are verdicts by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice which confirmed that genocide took place in Srebrenica and that former EU Enlargement Commissioner, Johannes Hahn, said that those who deny the genocide cannot be in the EU.

Montenegro’s Parliament has adopted a Declaration on Srebrenica in 2009 but it does not mention that genocide took place in the town.