More than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in the Srebrenica genocide, the worst massacre on European soil since World War II. The remains of 19 victims were buried on Sunday, the 26th anniversary of the massacre. Photo: Darko Bandic / AP / NTB
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Another 19 victims of the Srebrenica massacre of Bosnian Muslims have been laid to rest, 26 years after the genocide committed by Bosnian Serb forces.
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The newly identified remains were laid in graves during a ceremony at the memorial grove at Srebrenica on Sunday.
They were 16 men, two teenage boys and a woman who were identified through DNA analyzes after being found in mass graves. Of the estimated 8,000 people who were killed, most of them boys and men, almost 6,700 are now buried in the memorial grove.
Both international and national courts have ruled that the massacre was a genocide, the worst massacre on European soil since World War II.
—-Thousands of survivors, survivors and others attended the ceremony where the remains of 19 victims of the Srebrenica massacre were buried in Potočari at the scene of the genocide. Photo: Darko Bandic / AP / NTB
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Deny
Despite irrefutable evidence that this happened, Serbian leaders in Bosnia and neighboring Serbia continue to doze off or deny it.
– Unfortunately, denying the genocide in Srebrenica has now been used for two decades as a tool to ensure that the people remain divided between us and them. This is exactly the split that has brought so much suffering to so many lives, Judge Carmel Aguis said.
—-Survivors, relatives and others were present during the ceremony where 19 recently identified victims of the worst crime in Europe since World War II were buried at Srebrenica on Sunday. Photo: Darko Bandic / AP / NTB
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He heads the UN tribunal, which conducts war crimes cases from the former Yugoslavia,
– The denial of these crimes still shocks me deeply. It is a denial of the experiences the victims have felt on the body, as well as the facts that have been repeatedly confirmed by the international tribunals, says Agius.
Buried brother
The judge was among several regional and international representatives who spoke via video to the several thousand people who had gathered for the memorial ceremony in Srebrenica.
Since the victims were originally dumped in mass graves, most of which were moved in an attempt to hide the crime, the survivors have not been able to bury their loved ones until many years later.
“I will bury only the skull of my brother, but not even it is whole,” Azir Osmanovic told reporters on Sunday.
—-More than 1,000 people are still missing, and efforts to identify victims of the massacre are still ongoing. Here from the graveyard in the small town of Potočari just outside Srebrenica on Sunday. Photo: Darko Bandic / AP / NTB
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Many missed
His brother Azmir was 16 years old when Bosnian Serb forces captured Srebrenica in July 1995. He tried to flee with a group of peers, but entered a minefield, Osmanovic said.
– My brother and two other boys died there.
The skull was found in 2018 and identified a few months ago.
Most of the victims of the massacre were shot and killed in groups of several hundred in various places in the Srebrenica region.
– It is becoming increasingly difficult to find new mass graves. We are still looking for over a thousand victims, says Almasa Salihovic at the memorial center.
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