(Adnkronos) – Thousands of people are expected today in Srebrenica, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to commemorate the genocide committed thirty years ago by Bosnian Serb forces, one of the worst massacres committed on European soil since the Second World War. On the eve of the commemorations, thousands of “Srebrenica Peace Marchers” reached the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial, after walking over 100 kilometers in memory of the victims and survivors of the massacre.
Besieged for over three years, the enclave of Srebrenica, in eastern Bosnia, near the border with Serbia, despite having been declared a “protected zone” by the United Nations, was attacked in July 1995 by the Bosnian Serb forces of General Ratko Mladić. Within a few days, about 8,000 Bosnian men and boys were killed, their bodies dumped in dozens of mass graves. To date, the remains of over 80% of the victims have been recovered and buried.
In an attempt to hide the gravity of the crimes, the Bosnian Serb authorities organized operations to move the bodies, often torn apart by heavy machinery and transported to several so-called “secondary” mass graves, according to experts. “We are still looking for just under a thousand victims,” said Emza Fazlic, spokesperson for the Bosnian Institute for Missing Persons.
“For thirty years we have lived in pain. Our children were killed, innocent, in the UN protected area. Europe and the world watched, in silence, the massacre,” explains Munira Subašić, president of the main association of mothers of Srebrenica, whose husband Hilmo and seventeen-year-old son Nermin are among the victims.
Today, survivors and families will bury the remains of seven victims, including two young men who were 19 years old at the time of the massacre and a 67-year-old woman, during the commemorations at the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center.
