A woman tries to locate the right grave markers at the Potocari Memorial Centre during a funeral ceremony in Srebrenica.
AFP/Srebrenica
Thousands of people gathered yesteday in Srebrenica to mark the 19th anniversary of the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim males by ethnic Serb forces, Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II.
A total of 175 newly-identified massacre victims were laid to rest after a commemoration ceremony held in Potocari, just outside the ill-fated Bosnian town.
“This evil has still not been defeated. It will be when the flower of repentance flourishes,” said Bosnia’s grand mufti Husein Kavazovic, referring to the refusal by many Bosnian Serbs to recognise the scale of the genocide.
Around 15,000 people watched coffins filled with the victims’ remains and draped in green cloth laid to rest in freshly dug graves at a memorial cemetery.
Mustafa Delic buried his three brothers, the youngest aged just 21 when he was killed.
“Waiting was painful, but the moment has come to end this. One has to turn the page since life continues whether you want it to or not,” the 50-year-old Srebrenica survivor told AFP. “We did not have time to say goodbye. We were five brothers, and three of us had no luck.”
“Here it is the end,” whispered Ramiza Hasanovic, a woman in her 60s, who buried the recently found remains of her husband, her brother and her nephew.
The youngest victim buried during yesterday’s service was just 14 when he was killed. Among the others were 13 boys aged between 15 and 17.
The European Union paid respect yesterday to the victims of Srebrenica.
“Our thoughts are with the families who have lost loved ones, relatives and friends ... on this day of pain and grief,” a bloc’s statement said.
The eastern Bosnian town was a UN-protected Muslim enclave until July 11, 1995, when it was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces.
Around 8,000 men and boys died in the massacre which followed the town’s seizure. It was labelled genocide by two international courts.
