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
Dear Abdulraheem Uchil,
Hope these messages, will contribute you a major change in your life as a TRUE MUSLIM.
At least now you have to change yourself for sake of your own.
All community people will love you, if you truly learn and change.
Allau is Gafoor Al Raheem. He accepts sincere apologies and Tauba
I really respect for the word what he said is
About the interest being Muslim !!!
Dear brother,
You should now think how many people in your own community disagree with your principles.
Just for materialistic benefits you are compromising with teachings of Great religion where you borned with.
This world is not permanent. You and we are here to prepare in this life for the next permanent life.
Here we are supposed to face all type of difficulties to enables to lead the next life comfortably.
Join other your fellow community members. Live with them.
don't earn their enmity.
May Allah forgive us and you.
Dear brother,
You should now think how many people in your own community disagree with your principles.
Just for materialistic benefits you are compromising with teachings of Great religion where you borned with.
This world is not permanent. You and we are here to prepare in this life for the next permanent life.
Here we are supposed to face all type of difficulties to enables to lead the next life comfortably.
Join other your fellow community members. Live with them.
don't earn their enmity.
May Allah forgive us and you.
Dear Mr Rahim,
Congrats on winning the law suit.
In my opinion, you dont have to listen to the negative comments, especially to that of you receive from bearies. It doesn't matter which political party you belong to, as long as you do good service to the society.
They advise you on how to be 'true muslim'. 'True muslim' tag is not 'universal'. Till today nobody can unambiguously/univocally/indisputably define 'true muslim/islam'. We have 100s of parties in Islam. Each party considers themselves as 'true muslims'. This confusion will never ever be cleared until end of this world. Even terrorist claim they are 'true muslims'.
So, please continue your good works sir. By good works I mean moral/ethical and socially beneficial works, which are independent of any religion. Good is good. Bad is bad. No need any religious tags/support for it.
Thanks for valuable suggestions,(positive and negative comments )
What a joke Rahim!!! From which jungle these so called politician are coming from... Redicolous
Only in front of Media he is telling that he is not accepting interest. The real matter is entirely different. If he is a true Muslim he never join facist party like BJP. If he take interest or leave interest what is the difference....??? for him.
Dear Raheem Bhai,
If you are a true muslim then you should not accept even 50,000/ rupees . Because it is not that your hard earned money. Being a true muslim atleast you should donate this money to some charitable organization such as Old home , disabled children center or orphanage , then only you can say you are a true muslim.
Ra(hi)m Uchila, you cannot be a true muslim by not accepting interest, you have to learn and practice Islam to be come Muslim.
example for the man kind, best of rahim uchila \Being a ‘true Muslim’ I cannot accept interest,” he said."
By the way, what was the actual allegation? Can you please publish that defamatory article here ? :p
Rahim uchil shirt color and pose super
Just avoiding interest will not make a person true Muslim. A Muslim has to set example by practicing all teachings of Islam in life, so that even Non-Muslim be attracted.
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