Muslims remember Srebrenica massacre

TENS of thousands of Muslims from across Bosnia gathered yesterday to remember the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and bury the remains of more than 300 victims.

The funeral ceremony for the 308 Muslims, who were among 8,000 killed in Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II, was held at a memorial site just outside the town.

The victims, aged between 15 and 84, were exhumed after Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war and identified by DNA analysis.

“It was so hard when they informed me that my father has been identified,” said Vanesa Mehmedovic, who buried her father Mevludin. “However, since he is not with us in a way, I’m glad that his soul will finally find peace.”

The commemoration was held despite fears of anti-Muslim violence due to Bosnian Serb anger with a UN court’s decision last week to clear former commander of Muslim forces in Srebrenica, Naser Oric, of war crimes.

Refik Dervisevic, a massacre survivor, arrived in Srebrenica after a 100-kilometre March of Peace with 2,000 others.

“This is the third time that I am taking part in the march,” Dervisevic said.

“The first time I did not remember anything. I was just walking being haunted by thoughts.

“Last year I remembered the details from July 1995. I saw the place where I separated from my brother who was killed.”

Survivors and victims’ relatives were joined at the ceremony by Muslim and Croat members of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency — Zeljko Komsic and Haris Silajdzic but not any senior Bosnian Serb officials.

So far, 2,900 Srebrenica victims have been buried at the memorial. Thousands are yet to be exhumed and identified.

Near the end of Bosnia’s war, Serb forces overran the UN-protected enclave summarily killing 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

The International Court of Justice and the UN war crimes tribunal have ruled that the massacre was an act of genocide.

The alleged masterminds — wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic — are still at large.

“It’s a shame that 13 years after what has happened in Srebrenica and after the end of the war, Karadzic and Mladic are not arrested,” US war crimes ambassador John Williamson said.

His words were echoed by the victims’ relatives.

“We are still fighting to prove to the world what has happened here while those who are the most responsible for the crime are being rewarded with freedom,” Munira Subasic, head of an associations of Srebrenica mothers said.