Memory
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: Srebrenica commemorations
Tens of thousands of people attended the Potocary memorial cemetery for the 20th anniversary commemoration of the Srebrenica massacre. The ceremony included a funeral service and the burial of 136 victims whose remains had recently been identified, along with the remains of 6,241 others who had already been identified and buried in Potocary. The coffins travelled in a convoy from Visoko to Srebrenica and Bosnian citizens mourned the death along the way. Parallel mourning activities were held in several other cities and countries, including Belgrade in Serbia. Over 90 high-ranking international delegations attended the ceremonies, including one led by Bill Clinton, the US president at the time, and representatives from Jordan, The Netherlands, UK, Turkey, and all of the neighbouring countries from the former Yugoslavia. More than 2,000 police officers, including 1,200 members of the Republika Srpska police, secured the commemoration, as the presence of Serbian premier Aleksandar Vučić, who is associated with Serbia’s Nationalist past, was not welcome by a sector of the Bosniak attendants. Vučić was indeed attacked with stones and water bottles and had to flee the ceremony. Both the Serb and Bosnian governments condemned the attack and after a joint meeting in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, the leaders expressed their commitment to look to the future. In the week before the commemoration, a UN resolution that stated that “acceptance of the tragic events at Srebrenica as genocide is a prerequisite for reconciliation” was vetoed by Russia, Serbia’s ally. About 8,000 Muslims were killed in Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb forces during the Bosnian war, but Serbia refuses to refer to the massacre as genocide. (BBC, 09, B92, 10/07/15; Balkan Transitional Justice, 22/07/15)