Service marks 25th anniversary of Bosnia’s Srebrenica massacre

Crowd restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic limited the local Bosnian community’s ability to sombrely commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre.

Still, a small group of people from Windsor and Toronto gathered at the Srebrenica monument in Jackson Park Saturday to reflect on and mourn the loss of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys killed in what the United Nations deemed an act of genocide by Serbian troops on July 11, 1995.

“We organize something every year and last year we had maybe 100 people,” said Lasalle resident Senad Kalajdzic, one of Saturday’s organizers. “This year we have to respect and obey the law but it’s still very important to do it.”

Bosnian Serb troops attacked a UN safe area and separated men and boys from women. Some were taken away by trucks, 2,000 were killed on the spot and others who fled into the woods were hunted down.

In all, more than 8,000 were killed and buried in mass graves.

Windsor West MP Brian Masse in October, 2010, successfully had his motion passed unanimously in the House of Commons so that July 11 is recognized in Canada as Srebrenica Remembrance Day in memorial of the genocide. It is one of five genocides officially recognized by the federal government.

Adnan Balihodzic, an Imam from the Bosnian Islamic Association of Toronto, attended Saturday and said a prayer at the service.

“This occasion is very important to our community,” Balihodzic said. “Especially since it’s the 25th anniversary of the event. It was judged a genocide, the worst genocide on European soil besides the Holocaust.”

Balihodzic said this year the association is also participating in a webinar Sunday with the Jewish Community, which is marking the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust.

“It’s a tragic history we share,”

Balihodzic said. “We find so many similarities.”

By remembering the massacre, Balihodzic hopes to never see it repeated.

“That is always what’s in our prayers,” he said. “Let this not happen to anyone, anywhere in the world.”

DAX MELMER Emir Ramic, left, Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada, and Imam Adnan Balihodzic lead a Saturday service at Jackson Park marking the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre.