In Srebrenica, Thousands Gather to Remember 1995 Massacre, Bury Newly Identified Dead

A Bosnian Muslim woman mourns next to the grave of her relative, victim of the Srebrenica genocide, in Memorial Centre in Potocari, Bosnia, Tuesday, July 11, 2023. (AP)
A Bosnian Muslim woman mourns next to the grave of her relative, victim of the Srebrenica genocide, in Memorial Centre in Potocari, Bosnia, Tuesday, July 11, 2023. (AP)
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In Srebrenica, Thousands Gather to Remember 1995 Massacre, Bury Newly Identified Dead

A Bosnian Muslim woman mourns next to the grave of her relative, victim of the Srebrenica genocide, in Memorial Centre in Potocari, Bosnia, Tuesday, July 11, 2023. (AP)
A Bosnian Muslim woman mourns next to the grave of her relative, victim of the Srebrenica genocide, in Memorial Centre in Potocari, Bosnia, Tuesday, July 11, 2023. (AP)

Tens of thousands of people from around Bosnia and abroad gathered in Srebrenica Tuesday for the annual ritual of commemorating the 1995 massacre and to give a dignified burial to the victims unearthed from mass graves and only recently identified through DNA analysis.

Twenty-eight years after they were murdered in Europe’s only acknowledged genocide since the Holocaust, 27 men and three teenage boys were laid to rest Tuesday at a vast and ever-expanding memorial cemetery just outside Srebrenica, in eastern Bosnia, joining more than 6,600 massacre victims already reburied there.

Relatives of the victims can bury only partial remains of their loved ones as they are typically found scattered over several different mass graves, sometimes miles (kilometers) apart. Such was the case of Mirsada Merdzic, who buried her father on Tuesday.

“Only a very few bones of his were retrieved because he had been found (in a mass grave) near the Drina River,” she said while huddling next to a casket shrouded in a green burial cloth. “Maybe the river washed him away.”

Selma Ramic reburied a handful of her father's bones several years ago, but still returns to the town for the anniversary to honor others who shared his fate.

“One photo is the only thing I have left of my father, but I have love for him in my heart,” said Ramic, adding: “He still lives in us. He will live on as long as we are alive.”

The Srebrenica killings were the bloody crescendo of Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, which came after the breakup of Yugoslavia unleashed nationalist passions and territorial ambitions that set Bosnian Serbs against the country’s two other main ethnic populations — Croats and Bosniaks.

On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serbs overran a UN-protected safe area in Srebrenica. They separated at least 8,000 Muslim Bosniak men and boys from their wives, mothers and sisters and slaughtered them. Those who tried to escape were chased through the woods and over the mountains around the ill-fated town.

The perpetrators then plowed their victims’ bodies into hastily made mass graves, which they later dug up with bulldozers, scattering the remains among other burial sites to hide the evidence of their war crimes.

The Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic were both convicted of genocide in Srebrenica by a special UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. In all, the tribunal and courts in the Balkans have sentenced close to 50 Bosnian Serb wartime officials to more than 700 years in prison for the Srebrenica killings.

However, most Serbian and Bosnian Serb officials still celebrate Karadzic and Mladic as national heroes. They continue to downplay or even deny the Srebrenica killings and offend the massacre victims and survivors.

Adding to decades of insults, the Bosnian Serb mayor of Srebrenica, Mladen Grujicic, last week publicly described the Mothers of Srebrenica organization — founded by female relatives of massacre victims to demand the exhumation of mass graves and the dignified reburial of their loved ones — as “an engine of hate.”

“We are very sad and we will always be sad,” said Mevlija Sabanovic on Tuesday, after burying a cousin who was just 15 when he was killed.

“We are being humiliated constantly and that is not right. We must find a way to live together,” she added.

Since the end of the war, Srebrenica has been located in the Serb-run Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska, while many of its pre-war inhabitants live in the country’s other entity, the Bosniak-Croat Federation. The two entities — linked by shared, state-wide institutions — were created by the 1995 US-brokered Dayton peace accord that ended the Bosnian war.

Bosnian Serb leaders have never given up on the desire to separate their mini-state from the rest of the country. Stirring fears of a new conflict, in recent weeks they have stepped up their campaign by passing laws rejecting the authority in their territory of Bosnia’s multi-ethnic Constitutional Court and the top international overseer of the 1995 peace agreement, German politician Christian Schmidt.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, and enlargement commissioner Oliver Varhelyi, however, used the occasion of the massacre anniversary to pledge to “defend peace and protect life” in Bosnia.

“Europe remembers its responsibility and failure to protect ... we vow to do better,” they said in a statement issued ahead of the commemoration ceremony.



Reactions to the ICC warrants

An exterior view of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, 21 November 2024. EPA/REMKO DE WAAL
An exterior view of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, 21 November 2024. EPA/REMKO DE WAAL
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Reactions to the ICC warrants

An exterior view of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, 21 November 2024. EPA/REMKO DE WAAL
An exterior view of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, 21 November 2024. EPA/REMKO DE WAAL

These are reactions to the International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas commander Ibrahim al-Masri, who is believed to be dead.

The warrants are for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel's military campaign in Gaza since then.

ISRAEL:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office:
"Israel rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions leveled against it by ICC," the office said, calling the move antisemitic.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog:
"The decision chose the side of terrorism and evil over democracy and freedom and turned the international justice system itself into a human shield for Hamas' crimes against humanity."

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar:
"A dark moment for the International Criminal Court," Saar said, adding the court had "lost all legitimacy" and adding that it had issued "absurd orders without authority".

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid:
"Israel defends its life against terrorist organizations that attacked, murdered and raped our citizens, these arrest warrants are a reward for terrorism."

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich:
"Israel will continue to defend its citizens and its security with determination," he said, urging Netanyahu to sever contact with the court and impose sanctions on the Palestinian Authority and its leaders "to the point of its collapse".

Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir:
"The International Criminal Court in The Hague shows once again that it is antisemitic through and through."

PALESTINIANS:

Hamas official statement:
"We call on the International Criminal Court to expand the scope of accountability to all criminal occupation leaders."

Senior Hamas official Basem Naim:
"This is an important step on the path to justice and bringing justice to the victims but it remains a limited and spiritual step if it is not backed practically by all countries."

UNITED STATES:
Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of President-elect Trump: "The Court is a dangerous joke. It is now time for the US Senate to act and sanction this irresponsible body."

EUROPE:
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the ICC warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant are not political and the court decision should be respected and implemented.

Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp told parliament, "The Netherlands obviously respects the independence of the ICC," adding: "We won't engage in non-essential contacts and we will act on the arrest warrants. We fully comply with the Rome Statute of the ICC," he added.

France's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine said the French reaction to the warrants would be "in line with ICC statutes" but declined to say whether France would arrest the leader if he came to the country. "It's a point that is legally complex," he said.

Norway's Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said, "It is important that the ICC carries out its mandate in a judicious manner. I have confidence that the court will proceed with the case based on the highest fair trial standards."

Ireland's Prime Minister Simon Harris called the warrants "an extremely significant step" and added that Ireland respects the role of the ICC and anyone in a position to assist it in carrying out its vital work must do so "with urgency".

MIDDLE EAST:
Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said the ICC rulings should be respected and implemented, adding that "Palestinians deserve justice".