Bosnia says hundreds of victims of Srebrenica genocide still missing
BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) – The Bosnian Institute for Missing Persons has declared that hundreds of victims of the Srebrenica genocide are still missing after 28 years.
The head of the institute, Mujo Hadziomerovic, said that 12,469 bone remains were recovered during excavations of mass graves.
Every year on July 11, the newly identified victims are buried in the memorial cemetery in Potocari.
This year, a collective burial is organized for 30 newly identified victims, bringing the total number of graves in the cemetery to 6,751.
Hadziomerovic said that the bones of 797 people killed in Srebrenica are still untraceable.
“DNA tests and investigations regarding the cases are continuing. The process is not complete. We are trying to find the bone remains of 797 people killed in Srebrenica,” he added.
To date, 7,757 bodies have been identified and 6,721 victims have been buried at the Potocari Memorial and Cemetery.
He further informed that 81 mass graves containing the victims of Srebrenica have been discovered since the end of the war.
In Kamenica, the bones of 1,153 people were found in a large grave.
DNA samples from 1,600 people in 12 morgues across Bosnia and Herzegovina are awaiting matching with relatives.
According to official figures, at least 8,372 people were killed in Srebrenica, including 563 children and 60 women in July 1995.
The genocide in Srebrenica occurred when Bosnian Serb forces attacked the town, killing more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims.
The international community recognizes the events as genocide.
The U.N. Security Council declared Srebrenica a “safe area” in the spring of 1993. However, troops led by Gen. Ratko Mladic, who was later found guilty of war crimes, and crimes against humanity and genocide, overran the U.N. zone.
Dutch troops failed to act as Serb forces occupied the area, killing some 2,000 men and boys on July 11 alone.
Around 15,000 residents of Srebrenica fled to the surrounding mountains, but Serb troops hunted down and killed 6,000 more people.
The bodies of victims have been found from 570 places across the country.
In 2007, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that genocide had been committed in Srebrenica.
On June 8, 2021, UN tribunal judges upheld in a second-instance trial a verdict sentencing Mladic to life in prison for the genocide, persecution, crimes against humanity, extermination, and other war crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
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