Sarajevo Pays Respect to Srebrenica Victims

Sarajevo citizens                                             Photo by BIRN

The remains of 520 victims were transported from the identification centre in Visoko to Potocari where they will be buried on July 11, during the commemoration of the 1995 genocide when Bosnian Serb forces killed over 7,000 Bosniak men and boys.

Amongst the 520 victims were six underage boys, younger than 15 at the time of their death, and three women, one of whom was 94 years old when she was killed.

 The buses carrying the remains arrived in front of the Bosnian presidency building in Sarajevo at noon, where they were met by thousands of Sarajevo citizens and a large number of politicians, ambassadors and the High representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Valentin Inzko.

Bakir Izetbegovic, the presiding official of the Bosnian tripartite Presidency, said he had come to pay his respects to the innocent victims and that he would fight to ensure that an event like Srebrenica would never happen again.

“Unfortunately our fight continues and the difficult trials in The Hague, of Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, continue. These trials are hardest of all on the victims. The Serb side continues to deny that Srebrenica was genocide but we will persevere,” said Izetbegovic.

Karadzic and Mladic are on trial before the Hague tribunal for genocide in Srebrenica and other crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Croatian member of the presidency Zeljko Komsic said that each year on July 11 he goes back to the days of the tragedy in Srebrenica and asks himself how it was possible for men to commit such crimes against other men.

Sarajevo citizens                                             Photo by BIRN

“In these contentious political times, it is important to look back at this tragedy and remember the victims”, said Komsic.

Amor Masovic, a member of the Bosnian Institute for Missing Persons, told BIRN that the remains of more than a thousand victims that were found in  mass graves in Eastern Bosnia are yet to be identified.

The commemoration of the Srebrenica genocide will take place on July 11 in Potocari.

Bosnian politicians and citizens                                                                                                            Photo by BIRN

Sarajevo citizen                                                                                                                                       Photo by BIRN