As every year on 11 July, thousands of people are rushed to the Potocari memorial. They gathered around the 71 coffins covered with a green cloth, caressed by women in tears. On this day, the remains of 71 Bosnian victims of the Srebrenica massacre in 1995, recently identified, were interred Tuesday at the memorial of the killing. In a few days in July 1995, more than 8,000 men and Muslim Bosnian teenagers were massacred by the general Ratko Mladic’s Bosnian Serb forces as they attempted to flee the Srebrenica enclave.
A bloodbath considered an act of genocide by the international courts. The remains of the 71 victims, including seven teenagers and a woman, have joined 6.439 others died, while 233 are buried elsewhere, according to the Bosnian Institute for missing persons. A thousand remains not identified or disappeared. In a statement to the string “Happy”, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, reiterated that “a terrible crime (had) been committed” in Srebrenica. He also referred to the crimes against Serbs in the Balkans, especially during the Croatian offensive “Storm” in 1995, or in the Croatian Jasenovac concentration camp, during the Second World War. Belgrade refuses to consider the Srebrenica massacre as an act of genocide. Several leaders of the opposition, Sasa Jankovic (centre-left) and the liberal Cedomir Jovanovic, argue in this sense.
rachid/ tans
