Bosnia bids farewell to 30 more newly identified Srebrenica genocide victims

BELGRADE, Serbia (AA): Marking the 28th anniversary of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Bosnia and Herzegovina bade farewell to 30 more newly identified Bosnian Muslim genocide victims at a memorial service.

Every year on July 11, newly identified victims of the genocide are laid to rest at a memorial cemetery in Potocari, eastern Bosnia.

The memorial center is the focal point of remembrance for friends and relatives of the victims, mostly Bosniak Muslim men and boys, who were brutally murdered in one of the greatest acts of genocide in history, by Serb militias.

After this year’s funeral, the number of burials in the cemetery rose to 6,751.

Montenegran Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic said that the Srebrenica genocide must not be denied. “The genocide must never be denied. The truth sets you free, and I believe that when we all accept the truth, the region will really take a different path, the path of reconciliation and progress,” said Abazovic.

Montenegran President Jakov Milatovic in a video message said the genocide in Srebrenica is the biggest human tragedy in Europe after the Second World War.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel said: “We must never forget what happened in Srebrenica.”

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti on social media said that Srebrenica’s Genocide Remembrance Day holds in itself many unspeakable tragedies.

“A day when we remember the murder of 8,372 innocent people and countless crimes of rape and torture. It is also a reminder that the truth is not honoured but denied by Serbia, which is itself an inhuman crime,” said Kurti.

Commemorations

Various events were held to commemorate the genocide in the capital Sarajevo and other cities of the region.

At the historic bridge in Mostar, people threw white lilies into the Neretva River, symbolizing the innocence of the genocide victims.

Croatia’s capital Zagreb held a light projection of the iconic Srebrenica flower.

The Bosniak National Council also distributed Srebrenica flowers in Novi Pazar city to remember the victims.

The flower has a message – white signifies innocence, green signifies hope, and 11 petals stand for July 11, 1995.

Meanwhile, thousands of people participated in Mars Mira, an annual peace march.

Thousands of people from all over the world come to the Bosnian town every year and follow the same forest path used by the Bosniak Muslims when they were fleeing genocide.

The campaign lasts three days, culminating in the participants’ arrival in Potocari.

Srebrenica genocide

More than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed when Bosnian Serb forces attacked the eastern town of Srebrenica in July 1995, despite the presence of Dutch peacekeeping troops.

The Serb forces were trying to wrest territory from Bosnian Muslims and Croats to form a state.

The UN Security Council had 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, overran the UN zone.

Dutch troops failed to act and were mere bystanders as Serb forces occupied the area, killing some 2,000 Muslim men and boys on July 11 alone. Many women were brutally assaulted, raped and sexually abused.

Around 15,000 residents of Srebrenica fled to the surrounding mountains, but Serb troops on a killing spree hunted them down without qualms, killing 6,000 more innocent Muslim civilians.

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 — 26 years after this ‘Muslim holocaust’ — UN tribunal judges upheld in a second-instance trial a verdict sentencing Mladic to life in prison for genocide, persecution, crimes against humanity, extermination and other war crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina.