Conflicts & War

19 victims laid to rest on 26th anniversary of Srebrenica genocide

Sarajevo, Jul 11  (EFE).- Bosnia and Herzegovina on Sunday marked the 26th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre with the burial of 19 more victims of the act of genocide.

In July 1995, the Bosnian Serb Army commanded by war criminal Ratko Mladic killed an estimated 8,000 Bosniak Mulslim men and boys in one of the darkest chapters of the Balkan War.

The Srebrenica area has been designated a United Nations safe space, but the Dutch contingent of Blue Helmets stationed there were unable to prevent the massacre from taking place.

Commemorations are held on 11 July each year at the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial, which is lined with thousands of white grave stones.

The remains of 19 genocide victims were buried on Sunday, the youngest being just 16 at the time of his death and the oldest 64.

A special United Nations court, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, last month upheld Mladic’s life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Bosnian War.

The president of that court Carmel Agius addressed Sunday’s Srebrenica ceremony via a video message.

“Sadly, for more than two decades now, denying the genocide has been a go-to tool for making sure that the people of this country are kept divided between ‘them’ and ‘us’,” he said.

Serbia continues to recognize the Srebrenica massacre as genocide, acknowledging it instead as a crime.

“Following the recent rendering of the Mladic Appeal Judgement, the genocide in Srebrenica has now been confirmed as such by no less than 34 judges,’ he added.

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