France: International presence will stop Aleppo turning into another Srebrenica

France’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Francois Delattre, on Saturday said the international presence prevents Aleppo from turning into another Srebrenica, where thousands of Bosnian men and boys were massacred in 1995 when the town fell to Bosnian Serb forces during the Balkan Wars.

The UN Security Council will vote in New York later today on a resolution to allow the international body’s staff to monitor the evacuation of civilians from eastern Aleppo. The draft resolution was the result of a compromise between Russia and France, and the United States said it was expected to pass unanimously.

“Our goal through this resolution is to avoid another Srebrenica in this phase immediately following the military operations,” Delattre told AFP.

The draft resolution would request that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon quickly redeploy UN humanitarian staff already in Syria to the city “to carry out adequate, neutral monitoring, direct observation and to report on evacuations from besieged parts of Aleppo and protection of civilians inside Aleppo.”