SREBRENICA, Bosnia and Herzegovina, July 11, 2020 (BSS/AFP) –
Bosnian Muslims began marking the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica
massacre on Saturday, the worst atrocity on European soil since World
War II, with the memorial ceremony sharply reduced as a result of the
coronavirus pandemic.
Proceedings got underway in the morning with many mourners braving
the tighter restrictions put in place to stem the spread of COVID-19.
At 1100 GMT, a ceremony laying to rest the remains of nine victims
identified over the past year began at the memorial cemetery in
Potocari, a village just outside Srebrenica that served as the base
for the UN protection force during the conflict.
On July 11, 1995, after capturing the ill-fated town, Serb forces
killed more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in a few
days.
Sehad Hasanovic, 27, has a two-year-old daughter — the same age he
was when he lost his father in the violence.
“It’s difficult when you see someone calling their father and you
don’t have one,” Hasanovic said in tears, not dissuaded from attending
the commemorations in spite of the virus.
His father, Semso, “left to go into the forest and never returned.
Only a few bones have been found,” said Hasanovic.
Like his brother Sefik and father Sevko, Semso was killed when
Bosnian Serb troops led by Ratko Mladic entered the Srebrenica enclave
before systematically massacring Bosnian men and adolescents.
– Mass graves –
“The husbands of my four sisters were killed,” said Ifeta Hasanovic,
48, whose husband Hasib was one of the nine victims whose remains have
been identified since July 2019.
“My brother was killed, so was his son. My mother-in-law lost
another son as well as her husband.”
The episode — labelled as genocide by two international courts —
came at the end of a 1992-1995 war between Bosnia’s Croats, Muslims
and Serbs that claimed some 100,000 lives.
So far, the remains of nearly 6,900 victims have been found and
identified from more than 80 mass graves.
Bosnian Serb wartime military chief general Ratko Mladic, still
revered as a hero by many Serbs, was sentenced to life in prison by a
UN court in 2017 over war crimes including the Srebrenica genocide. He
is awaiting the decision on his appeal.
Radovan Karadzic, a Bosnian Serb wartime political leader, was also
sentenced to life in prison in The Hague.
– War against denial –
The Srebrenica massacre is the only episode of the Bosnian conflict
to be described as genocide by the international community.
And while for Bosnian Muslims recognising the scale of the atrocity
is a necessity for lasting peace, for most Serbs — leaders and
laypeople in both Bosnia and Serbia — the use of the word genocide
remains unacceptable.
In the run-up to the anniversary, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic
described Srebrenica as “something that we should not and cannot be
proud of”, but he has never publicly uttered the word “genocide”.
Several thousand Serbs and Muslims live side by side in impoverished
Srebrenica, a town in eastern Bosnia with just a few shops in its
centre.
On Friday, the town’s Serbian mayor Mladen Grujicic — who was
elected in 2016 after a campaign based on genocide denial — said that
“there is new evidence every day that denies the current presentation
of everything that has happened”.
Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik has also described the
massacre as a “myth”.
But on Friday, the Muslim member of Bosnia’s joint presidency, Sefik
Dzaferovic, said: “We will tirelessly insist on the truth, on justice
and on the need to try all those who have committed this crime”.
“We will fight against those who deny the genocide and glorify its
perpetrators,” he said at the memorial centre where he attended a
collective prayer.
In order to avoid large crowds on Saturday, organisers have invited
people to visit the memorial centre over the whole month of July.
A number of different exhibitions are on display, including
paintings by Bosnian artist Safet Zec.
Another installation, entitled “Why Aren’t You Here?” by US-Bosnian
artist Aida Sehovic, comprises more than 8,000 cups of coffee spread
out on the cemetery’s lawn.
“We still haven’t answered the question why they are no longer
here,” she told AFP.
“How could this have happened in the heart of Europe, that people
were killed in such a terrible way in a UN protected area? Not to
mention the fact that the genocide is still being denied.”