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29 years ago Serb forces captured the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, and carried out Europe's worst worst atrocity on European soil since the Holocaust.Second World War. Around 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed there over several days and their bodies dumped in mass graves. It didn’t come out of nowhere: In the three years leading up to the genocide, an estimated 100,000 people were killed, 80% of whom were Bosniaks, one of three ethnic groups who called the fledgling state of Bosnia and Herzegovina home.
The Bosnian Muslims had found shelter in Srebrenica during the Bosnian War because it was supposed to be under UN protection. On 16 April 1993, one year into a civil war that began when Bosnia sought independence from Yugoslavia, the Security Council had passed Resolution 819 requiring all parties to treat Srebenica and its surroundings as a safe area which should be free from any armed attack or any other hostile act.
However in July 1995, General Ratko Mladić and his Serbian paramilitary units overran and captured the town, Dutch UN peacekeeping forces were at the time accused of failing to do enough to prevent the massacre.The Muslim men and boys were told by the Dutch peacekeepers they would be safe and handed over to the Bosnian Serb army. They never returned. The Netherlands has since been found partly liable for the deaths of 300 Muslims killed in the Srebrenica massacre, The Hague appeals court upheld a decision from 2014 that ordered the Dutch state to pay compensation to the victims families. In August 2001 the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) concluded that a crime of genocide was committed in Srebrenica. Ever since, the survivors and the victims’ families have been fighting to obtain justice and recognition.
Srebrenica happened during a war with seemingly few rules of engagement, bitter fighting, indiscriminate shelling of cities and towns, ethnic cleansing and systematic mass rape. Essentially a territorial conflict, one in which people of difference looked back on times of peaceful coexistence, however fragile, and forward to ethnic separation, exclusion and to living apart.
When the attackers overran Srebrenica on July 11 and took peacekeepers hostage, about 25,000 Bosniaks fled to the UN base at Potocari on the city's outskirts. They sought refuge despite the scorching heat and catastrophic hygienic conditions. A day later, the attackers began to assault, rape and kill them. On July 12 and 13, girls, women and elderly refugees were loaded onto buses and driven to regions under Bosniak control. After murdering thousands of Srebrenica’s Muslims, Serbs dumped their bodies in numerous mass graves scattered throughout eastern Bosnia, in an attempt to hide the crime. Body parts are still being found in mass graves and are being put together and identified through DNA analysis. Almost 7,000 of those killed have been found and identified. Newly identified victims are buried each year on 11 July, the anniversary of the day the killing began in 1995.The remains of 14 more victims of the massacre - including a 17-year-old boy - were due to be buried at a memorial cemetery in Potocari today, just outside the town.
The remains of some 1,000 victims of the massacre in the eastern town during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war are still missing.
Bosnian Serb wartime political leader, Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic were both convicted of and sentenced for genocide in Srebrenica by a special U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague. In all, the tribunal and courts in the Balkans have sentenced close to 50 Bosnian Serb wartime officials to more than 700 years in prison for the Srebrenica killings.
Bosnian Serbs, however, still celebrate Karadzic and Mladic as heroes. Some were even staging celebrations of “the 1995 liberation of Srebrenica” on the anniversary of the crime.
The Serbian Orthodox Church supported Mladic. Serbs celebrated the notorious paramilitary commander Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as "Arkan," as a hero. Now, a quarter of a century after the slaughter of Srebrenica, most Serbian leaders and many citizens still refuse to recognize it as a genocide; streets, schools and student dorms in Serbia are named after the convicted war criminals Mladic and Karadzic; and many of the men who were directly or indirectly involved in the 1995 massacre hold key positions in the country's political and economic sphere.
In fact, Bosnian Serb political leaders have consistently prevented the country from adopting a law that would ban genocide denial, with the Serb member of Bosnia’s presidency, Milorad Dodik, even publicly describing the Srebrenica slaughter as a “fabricated myth.”
Thousands gathered in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica today to commemorate the 29th anniversary of the massacre which comes under the shadow of the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza, which has drawn a number of parallels from activists and commentators. The remains of 14 more victims of the massacre - including a 17-year-old boy - were due to be buried at a memorial cemetery in Potocari on Thursday, just outside the town.
Srebrenica happened during a war with seemingly few rules of engagement, bitter fighting, indiscriminate shelling of cities and towns, ethnic cleansing and systematic mass rape. Essentially a territorial conflict, one in which people of difference looked back on times of peaceful coexistence, however fragile, and forward to ethnic separation, exclusion and to living apart.
When the attackers overran Srebrenica on July 11 and took peacekeepers hostage, about 25,000 Bosniaks fled to the UN base at Potocari on the city's outskirts. They sought refuge despite the scorching heat and catastrophic hygienic conditions. A day later, the attackers began to assault, rape and kill them. On July 12 and 13, girls, women and elderly refugees were loaded onto buses and driven to regions under Bosniak control. After murdering thousands of Srebrenica’s Muslims, Serbs dumped their bodies in numerous mass graves scattered throughout eastern Bosnia, in an attempt to hide the crime. Body parts are still being found in mass graves and are being put together and identified through DNA analysis. Almost 7,000 of those killed have been found and identified. Newly identified victims are buried each year on 11 July, the anniversary of the day the killing began in 1995.The remains of 14 more victims of the massacre - including a 17-year-old boy - were due to be buried at a memorial cemetery in Potocari today, just outside the town.
The remains of some 1,000 victims of the massacre in the eastern town during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war are still missing.
Bosnian Serb wartime political leader, Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic were both convicted of and sentenced for genocide in Srebrenica by a special U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague. In all, the tribunal and courts in the Balkans have sentenced close to 50 Bosnian Serb wartime officials to more than 700 years in prison for the Srebrenica killings.
Bosnian Serbs, however, still celebrate Karadzic and Mladic as heroes. Some were even staging celebrations of “the 1995 liberation of Srebrenica” on the anniversary of the crime.
The Serbian Orthodox Church supported Mladic. Serbs celebrated the notorious paramilitary commander Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as "Arkan," as a hero. Now, a quarter of a century after the slaughter of Srebrenica, most Serbian leaders and many citizens still refuse to recognize it as a genocide; streets, schools and student dorms in Serbia are named after the convicted war criminals Mladic and Karadzic; and many of the men who were directly or indirectly involved in the 1995 massacre hold key positions in the country's political and economic sphere.
In fact, Bosnian Serb political leaders have consistently prevented the country from adopting a law that would ban genocide denial, with the Serb member of Bosnia’s presidency, Milorad Dodik, even publicly describing the Srebrenica slaughter as a “fabricated myth.”
Thousands gathered in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica today to commemorate the 29th anniversary of the massacre which comes under the shadow of the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza, which has drawn a number of parallels from activists and commentators. The remains of 14 more victims of the massacre - including a 17-year-old boy - were due to be buried at a memorial cemetery in Potocari on Thursday, just outside the town.
Among those taking part in the commemorations in Potocari was Palestinian journalist Motaz Azaiza, who escaped from Gaza in January along with some family members. “I want to thank the people who raised the flags of Palestine alongside the flags of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I wasn't born when all this happened in Srebrenica," the photojournalist told reporters at the ceremony. “Since I was little, I listened to what happened here, through the news, through friends. The people here have great support from the people of Palestine and I thank you for your solidarity." 'Never again'
A number of campaigners and politicians, including Benjamina Karic, the mayor of Sarajevo, have drawn direct comparisons between Srebrenica and Gaza. The Bosnian genocide has also been referred to in relation to the ongoing war in Sudan, where non-Arab civilians in Darfur have been the victims of massacres perpetrated by the paramilitary.
Today we remember the victims, survivors and those still fighting for justice.It should be studied by all today. And in solemn memory of the Srebrenica massacre, we must reflect on the tragedies that echo through history.A ghastly, tragic, murderous reminder that a genocide began while the world watched. And we did nothing. As we remember the past, we cannot ignore the heartbreaking parallels unfolding in Gaza and do nothing.
As we commemorate the 29th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide reminding us of the horrors that racism can inflict, Gaza enters its 9th month under Israeli bombardment and a new genocide unfolds. Nearly 38,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, with another 87,000 injured.
Just as Bosnians were dehumanized and systematically killed, so too are Palestinians today. As we witness the ongoing genocide in Gaza, we must unite for peace and justice and keep talking about Palestine. History must not repeat itself.
Srebrenica: We will never forget !
Palestine : We will never give up!
Stop the genocide!
Here is a link to the official site of rememberance.:-
http://www.srebrenica.org.uk/
http://www.srebrenica.org.uk/
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