Potocari, Bosnia and Herzegovina – In a grassy valley dotted with white gravestones, 1000’s of individuals gathered to mark 30 years for the reason that Srebrenica bloodbath on Friday.
Seven victims of the 1995 genocide, a few of whose stays have been solely found and exhumed prior to now yr from mass graves uncovered in Liplje, Baljkovica, Suljici and Kamenicko Brdo, have been buried in the course of the sombre anniversary on Friday.
Restricted stays of one of many victims, Hasib Omerovic, who was 34 when he was killed, have been discovered and exhumed from a mass grave in 1998, however his household delayed his burial till now, hoping to get better extra.
Zejad Avdic, 46, is the brother of one other of the victims being buried. Senajid Avdic was simply 19 when he was killed on July 11, 1995. His stays have been found in October 2010 at a web site in Suljici, one of many villages attacked that day by Bosnian Serb forces.
“When the information got here, at first, I couldn’t – I didn’t – dare inform my mom, my father. It was too onerous,” Avdic informed Al Jazeera, referring to the second he discovered that a few of his brother’s stays had been discovered.
“What was discovered wasn’t full, just some bones from the cranium.”
Households like Avdic’s have waited many years for even a fraction of bone to substantiate their liked one’s demise. Many have buried their family members with solely partial stays.
The Srebrenica bloodbath was the crescendo of Bosnia’s three-year warfare from 1992 to 1995, which flared up within the aftermath of Yugoslava’s dissolution, pitting Bosnian Serbs towards the nation’s two different major ethnic populations – Croats and Muslim Bosniaks.
On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces stormed the enclave of Srebrenica, a chosen United Nations-protected protected zone, overrunning the Dutch UN battalion stationed there. They separated at the least 8,000 Bosniak males and boys from their wives, moms and sisters, slaughtering them en masse.
1000’s of males and boys tried to flee by means of the encircling woods, however Serb forces chased them by means of the mountainous terrain, killing and capturing as many as they may. Ladies and kids have been expelled from the town and neighbouring villages by bus.
1000’s of individuals attended the commemoration for victims of the bloodbath on Friday, which started with a congregational Islamic prayer – males, girls and kids prostrating in unison among the many rows of gravestones.
After the prayer, the stays of the victims, who’ve been recognized utilizing in depth DNA evaluation, have been carried in inexperienced coffins draped with the Bosnian flag.
The coffins have been lowered into newly ready graves. At every web site, teams of males stepped ahead to take turns protecting the caskets with soil, shovelling from close by mounds in a solemn conclusion to the proceedings.
After the stays had been buried, the victims’ households crowded across the websites, wiping away their tears as an imam recited verses over the caskets.
‘I’ll preserve coming so long as I’m alive’
Fikrera Tuhljakovic, 66, attends the memorial right here annually, however this yr her cousin was among the many victims being buried.
She stated she is set to make sure he’s remembered and that the entire victims are by no means forgotten.
“I’ll preserve coming so long as I’m alive,” Tuhljakovic informed Al Jazeera.
Forensic scientists and the Worldwide Fee on Lacking Individuals have, within the many years for the reason that mass killings, labored to find the stays of these killed.
Greater than 6,000 victims have been buried on the memorial web site in Potocari, however greater than 1,000 stay lacking.
![A woman mourns the burial of her loved one [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/DSC_0952-1752247869.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80)
In 2007, the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ) declared the occasions in Srebrenica and the encircling space a genocide. Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic have been each convicted of genocide, warfare crimes and crimes towards humanity and sentenced to life in jail.
In whole, the tribunal and courts within the Balkans have sentenced nearly 50 Bosnian Serb wartime officers to greater than 700 years in jail for the genocide.
However many accused stay unpunished. Denial of the genocide additionally continues – particularly amongst political leaders in Serbia and the Serb-majority entity of Republika Srpska, which was established within the northeast of the nation at the beginning of the warfare in 1992 with the acknowledged intention of defending the pursuits of the Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In accordance with Emir Cica, Islamic Aid’s Bosnia nation director, worldwide establishments haven’t completed sufficient to stop occasions like Srebrenica from occurring once more, with comparable atrocities occurring in Gaza for the time being.
“Once we see what has occurred, for instance, in Gaza, it is extremely painful for us as a result of we perceive this [experience],” Cica informed Al Jazeera.
For Avdic, Gaza is certainly a painful reminder of historical past repeating itself.
“Right this moment we’re burying our victims of genocide, and immediately in Gaza, genocide is going on, too,” he stated solemnly.
“I don’t know what sort of message to ship; there’s no impact on these in energy who might truly do one thing.”
