Bosnia, Jul 12: Bosnians commemorated on Saturday the massacre of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, marking the 25th anniversary of killings that shocked the world and have stood out as Europe's only atrocity since World War Two constituting genocide.
Nine newly identified victims were buried at a flower-shaped cemetery near the town, where tall white tombstones mark the graves of 6,643 other victims.
"After 25 years we succeeded in finding his mortal remains, so they can be laid to their final rest," said Fikret Pezic, who buried his father Hasan.
The remains of some 1,000 victims of the massacre in the eastern town during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war are still missing.
Ifeta Hasanovic decided to bury incomplete remains of her husband, saying: "We were aware they cannot be complete after 25 years, at least there are some, I did not want to make any new delays."
World leaders addressed the ceremony by video link, unable to attend because of coronavirus epidemic. Instead of the tens of thousands visitors who typically attend the commemoration each year, only a few thousand came after organisers banned organised visits.
During the Bosnian war, Bosnian Serb forces pushed non-Serbs out of territories they sought for their Serb statelet. Fleeing Muslims took shelter in several eastern towns, including Srebrenica, that were designated as United Nations "safe zones".
On July 11, 1995, the Serb forces commanded by General Ratko Mladic overran Srebrenica, which was protected by lightly armed Dutch peacekeepers.
They sent women and children away and captured and executed the men and boys they found. The bodies were dumped into mass graves and later exhumed by U.N. investigators and used as evidence in war crimes trials of Bosnian Serb leaders.
"We grieve with the families that tirelessly seek justice for the 8,000 innocent lives lost, all these years later," said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Washington brokered Bosnia's peace deal months after the massacre.
Most people at the commemoration were Muslim Bosniaks, reflecting conflicting narratives about the bloodshed - which hinders reconciliation nearly 25 years after the end of war in which about 100,000 people were killed.
The U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia convicted Mladic and his political chief Radovan Karadzic over Srebrenica genocide but they remained heroes for Serbs, many of whom deny that genocide happened.
On Saturday, the Serbs in the nearby town of Bratunac organised an event marking July 11 as the "Srebrenica Liberation Day".
Sefik Dzaferovic, the Bosniak chairman of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, called for legislation that would ban denial of genocide.
"There can be no trust as long as we witness attacks on the truth, denial of genocide and glorification and celebration of executors," Dzaferovic told the commemoration gathering.
Comments
Your agenda in all election is " We will build Ram Mandir" if we elected to assembly. Now Central is with BJP hand, UP is with BJP hand then what is the issue? Why again and again saying we will build Ram Mandir - Ram Mandir every now and then. Road is free and why dont you take steps to build the temple and finish the issue?
Dear Non Muslim brothers and sisters, believe it or not - These so called politicians will never build Ram Mandir or whatsoever. This is the main Muddah for their election campain. Actually we the voters are fool and fighting each other (Hindu & Muslim), killing , looting innocents etc etc. - Finally who will benefit? These politicians and who is the looser - WE
Dear All - Please think about the development of our state, country and cast your valuable vote to the right candidate who may contribute to the development of our state/country. In this era Mandir-Masjid is not the issue - Issue is development, education, job, food etc etc.
The problem is BALATKARI JANWAR PATRY (BJP), Modi and Amit shah style of running the government on Hitler style has already filled the gandu rashtra people with poison in their brains to send Muslims out of India. This is the real problem. Gandus want their gandu rashtra at any cost now. Arab Muslims ruled India for 900 years and enriched the country with coffee, silk etc. Then British came and looted the country. Then these BJP and RSS are gifted with the divide and rule formula from British. They are now just following the same old formula to eat up whatever is left in the country. All this making hindu rashtra etc is a drama.
Comparing to Japan and other countries India is quite behind, because their aim is development, whereas our aim is Mandir/Masjid and religion. If India continues the same theory, India will never develop. These politicians are taking India on wrong direction.
Tippu is dead , shivaji also is dead. Why not worry about poor people like us who are still alive? We have enough masjid to pray , Allah will accept our prayers from any masjid, plz dont worry about that. Kindly finish the ram mandir as soon as possible. After all this done, kindly focus on jobs, roads, farmers, water, food, social services etc. i hope this is very simple english so u and your like minded friends can understand.
Thanks
kachda chaddi,,
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