Thousands of Bosnian Muslims mark anniversary of Srebrenica massacre

THOUSANDS OF Bosnian Muslims have gathered in Srebrenica to mark the 23rd anniversary of Europe’s worst massacre since the Second World War and attend the funeral for 35 recently identified victims.

The remains of the men and boys slaughtered at the enclave in July 1995 were laid to rest in the town whose name has become synonymous with the brutality of the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

The coffins covered in green cloth were lined up at a memorial centre, and new burial pits were dug at the massive graveyard which already holds 6,575 victims found previously. Srebrenica was a UN-protected, Muslim-populated town in eastern Bosnia besieged by Serb forces.

Serb troops led by General Ratko Mladic overran the enclave, separated men from women and small children and executed about 8,000 men and boys within a few days. Some 30,000 people were violently displaced.

Dutch UN peacekeepers were undermanned and outgunned and failed to intervene.

Nermin Alivukovic, the president of the commemoration’s organising committee, said: “Srebrenica has become a global symbol for genocide, a warning that no more genocides should happen anywhere in the world.”

Experts are still excavating more victims’ bodies from hidden mass graves throughout Bosnia. Experts have had to use DNA analysis to put a body together from bones found in locations miles from each other, as the perpetrators tried to hide the war crime.

Although an international court has labeled the Srebrenica killings as genocide, Serbs have never admitted their troops committed the ultimate crime. There were no official delegations of Bosnian Serbs or from Serbia present at Wednesday’s event.

Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, said: “Across the region there should be commemoration of the victims of the Srebrenica genocide. Unfortunately, this is not the case.”