Fifty Srebrenica Victims Burdened, 27 Years After genocide

The remains of the 50 victims of genocide in Srebrenica, identified as late, were buried Monday at the Potocari Memorial Centre where the graves of over 6,670 other victims are located.

On 11 July, Bosnia and Herzegovina marks the 27th anniversary of the massacre, in which Serbian forces killed over 8,000 Muslim men and boys during the war of the 1990s.

The massacre has been named the worst atrocity in Europe since the end of World War II, while The Hague International Court has recognised it as genocide.

Potocari, July 11, 2022.

At Potocari, thousands attended the memorial ceremonies of the massacre.

Hamdija Fejzic, chairman of the Organising Committee for the anniversary of Genocide and deputy chairman of the Srebrenica municipality, said he was lucky to survive genocide.

Fejzic said that the terrible event should never become “just one bulletin in humanity's history”.

He called on officials in Bosnia and Herzegovina to take concrete steps to make Srebrenica “a city of life, not death”.

“in Srebrenica, children born after genocide, are raised and they are our hope”, Fejzic said.

Michael Murphy, US ambassador to Sarajevo, said that the killings in Srebrenica are “a dark event in history, not only for [Bosnia and Herzegovina], but for all humanity”.

On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces have entered Srebrenica, the area declared secure by the United Nations.

In the days that followed, they have killed over 8,000 Muslim men and boys, while their bodies have thrown them into pits in surrounding forests.

Murders have occurred in a few days, but the process of finding troops has taken years and the identification and burial of bones continues.

So far, 47 people have been sentenced to more than 700 years in prison for their roles in genocide.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has been sentenced to life in prison, as has former Bosnian military leader Ratko Mladic.

The political leaders of Serbs living today in Bosnia and neighbouring Serbia refuse to admit that genocide has occurred in Srebenica, and the massacre is called “greater crime”.

Last July, former top international representative for Bosnia Valentin Inzko has declared illegal denial of genocide and war crimes, making such an act punishable by prison.

The law has provoked outrage among Bosnian Serbs, led by Milorad Dodik, a member of the country's tripartite presidency.

Dodik has launched the process of withdrawing Serbs from the army, the judiciary and the tax system, causing fear of breaking up Bosnia or beginning a new conflict.

On the eve of marking the 27th anniversary of the genocide, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, and EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhely have issued a joint statement saying that at Srebrenica, “Europe has failed”.

It is more than ever our duty to remember the Srebrenica genocide... to rise to protect peace, human dignity and universal values”, they have said.

And today, we can't take peace as good as”, Borrell and Varhely have said, citing the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

The mass killings and war crimes we see in Ukraine bring vivid memories of those that occurred in the wars of the Western Balkans in the 1990s”, European top diplomats have said.

According to the Institute of Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, more than 1,200 victims of the Srebrenica massacre remain missing. / REL