Bosnia commemorates 27th anniversary of Srebrenica massacre

Sarajevo, Jul 11 ​​(EFE).- Bosnia-Herzegovina commemorated the 27th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre on Monday.

The event was held to remember July 11, 1995, the day when the Bosnian Serb army commanded by convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic killed an estimated 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys in one of the darkest chapters of the Balkan War.

The Srebrenica area had been under United Nations protection, but the Dutch contingent of Blue Helmets stationed there was unable to prevent the massacre from taking place.

The remains of 50 more people were buried during the commemoration ceremony held at the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial in Potocari town, which holds the graves of 6,721 victims.

Some 1,200 other victims are still missing in what was recognized by the International Court of Justice as a genocide.

During the ceremony, executive vice president of the World Jewish Congress Menachem Rosensaft called on the world to remember the Srebrenica genocide.

“We cannot allow the deniers of the Srebrenica genocide to continue to spread their lies with impunity, or to try shamelessly to shift the blame to the victims,” he said.

Graciela Gatti Santana, president of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MTPI), said: “If we forget our history, we are condemned to repeat it.”

Last year, former high representative for Bosnia Valentin Inzko banned denying the genocide and war crimes committed in the country, as well as the glorification of war criminals.

The law, boycotted by Bosnian Serbs, triggered ethnic tensions in the country.

“The law has stopped the wave of denialism from growing,” Bosniak leader Sefik Dzaferovic said at the ceremony.

The Bosnian Serb Istocna Alternativa nationalist association, however, announced it would broadcast a film with its own version of what happened in July 1995 in Srebrenica.

So far, a total of 48 people have been convicted for their involvement in the genocide by courts in the Hague, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. EFE

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