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Srebrenica: a quarter of a century later, Muslims mourn their deaths

2020-07-11T09:01:09.012Z


Bosnian Muslims commemorate Saturday the worst massacre on European soil since the Second World War, in a memorial reduced by the coronavirus.


Bosnian Muslims commemorate the Srebrenica genocide 25 years ago, the worst killing on European soil since World War II, in a memorial to the crowded Coronavirus on Saturday. Due to pandemic control measures, organizers expect fewer people than usual to attend this event, which usually attracts tens of thousands of people each year. The official commemorations that start in the morning will be followed at 1 p.m. (Paris time) by the burial of the remains of nine victims of the massacre identified since last July. Their remains will be buried in the cemetery of the Genocide Memorial Center, in Potocari, a village near Srebrenica where the base of the UN protection force (UNPROFOR) was located during the Bosnian inter-community war (1992-95).

Read also: Srebrenica, the story of a massacre

A "protected area" of the United Nations, Srebrenica was taken on July 11, 1995, five months before the end of the war, by Bosnian Serb forces, who massacred there in a few days more than 8,000 Bosnian men and adolescents (Muslims ). The Bosnian Serb political and military leaders at the material time, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, were sentenced to life imprisonment by international justice, including for the massacre at Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo. To date, nearly 6,900 victims of the massacre have been found in more than 80 mass graves and identified. Most rest in the Memorial Center.

A month of commemoration

The Srebrenica massacre is the only episode in the Bosnian conflict (100,000 dead) described as an act of genocide by international justice. But its gravity is still downplayed by the political leaders of Bosnian Serbs. The Serbian member of the collegiate presidency of Bosnia, Milorad Dodik, refuses the qualification of "genocide" and speaks of "myth" . "We will continue to insist on the truth, on justice and on the need to try all those who have committed this crime," said Bosnian (Muslim) member of the Bosnian presidency, Sefik Dzaferovic, on Friday. "We will fight against those who deny the genocide and glorify its perpetrators," he added to the Memorial Center where he attended a collective prayer. The Serbian mayor of Srebrenica, Mladen Grijicic, said that "there is daily new evidence that denies the current presentation of everything that has happened" in Srebrenica.

Read also: Bosnian War: Radovan Karadzic sentenced on appeal to life imprisonment

Due to the impossibility of bringing in crowds in one day, the organizers invited people to visit the Memorial Center throughout July. Several exhibitions have been installed, in particular the paintings of the Bosnian artist Safet Zec, devoted to the massacre. Another, called "Why aren't you there?" , by the American artist of Bosnian origin Aida Sehovic, is made up of more than 8,000 cups of coffee for as many victims of the massacre, placed on the lawn at the Memorial Center. "We still haven't answered the question " why are they no longer there? " How could it have happened in the heart of Europe, in the protected area of ​​the United Nations, that people were killed in such a terrible way? Not to mention the fact that the genocide is still denied, " said the artist.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-07-11

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