Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has called on the government to explain its reasons for not supporting a UN resolution to commemorate the massacre of thousands of Muslims in Bosnia 29 years ago.
Maumoon urged the government to explain the reason for not voting in favour of the Bosnia genocide resolution in a reply to a post made by son Faris Maumoon on social media. He urged Foreign Minister Moosa Zameer to provide clarification.
On July 11, 1995, 8,372 Muslims were killed in Bosnia’s Srebrenica. The massacre was committed by a militant group of Bosnian Serbs during the Bosnia war that started in 1992. Maumoon was the President of the Maldives at the time.
In his post, Faris said that people old enough to remember would recall how Maldivians joined in expressing solidarity with Bosnian Muslims.
The Maldives abstained when the resolution to establish an annual day of remembrance for the 1995 Srebrenica genocide was put to a vote.
Neither the Foreign Ministry nor the Maldives government has yet to officially comment on the issue.
China, a close diplomatic partner of the current government, voted against the resolution. Neighboring India also abstained like the Maldives. The UK and America voted to pass the resolution. Israel did not participate in the vote.
The resolution was passed with the backing of 84 countries. Only 19 countries voted against the resolution but 68 countries did not vote either way.
The International Court of Justice recognized the massacre of Bosnian Muslims as a genocide.
