Bosnia Muslims mourn their dead 25 years after Srebrenica massacre

Bosnian Muslims began marking the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre on Saturday, the worst atrocity on European soil since the Second World War, with the memorial ceremony sharply reduced as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Proceedings got under way in the morning with the burial of the remains of nine victims identified over the past year at the memorial cemetery in Potocari, a village just outside Srebrenica that served as the base for the UN protection force during the conflict.

On July 11, 1995, after capturing the ill-fated town, Serb forces killed more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in a few days.

Sehad Hasanovic was two years old when he lost his father in the violence, the same age as his daughter now.

"It's difficult when you see someone calling their father and you don't have one," he said at the funeral ceremony.

His father, Semso, "left to go into the forest and never returned. Only a few bones have been found," said Hasanovic.

Like his brother Sefik and father Sevko, Semso was killed when Bosnian Serb troops led by Ratko Mladic entered the Srebrenica enclave before systematically massacring Bosnian men and adolescents.

"The husbands of my four sisters were killed," said Ifeta Hasanovic, 48, whose husband Hasib was one of the nine victims whose remains have been identified since July 2019.

"My brother was killed, so was his son. My mother-in-law lost another son as well as her husband."

The episode, labelled as genocide by two international courts, came at the end of the 1992-1995 war between Bosnia's Croats, Muslims and Serbs that claimed some 100,000 lives.

So far, the remains of nearly 6,900 victims have been found and identified from more than 80 mass graves.

Mladic, a military commander still regarded as a hero by many Serbs, was sentenced to life in prison by a UN court in 2017 over war crimes including the Srebrenica genocide. He is awaiting a decision on his appeal.

Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb wartime political leader, was also sentenced to life in prison in The Hague.

The Srebrenica massacre is the only episode of the Bosnian conflict to be described as genocide by the international community.

And while for Bosnian Muslims recognising the scale of the atrocity is a necessity for lasting peace, for most Serbs – leaders and laypeople in both Bosnia and Serbia – the use of the word genocide remains unacceptable.

In the run-up to the anniversary, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic described Srebrenica as "something that we should not and cannot be proud of", but he has never publicly uttered the word "genocide".

Several thousand Serbs and Muslims live side by side in impoverished Srebrenica, a town in eastern Bosnia with just a few shops in its centre.

On Friday, the town's Serbian mayor Mladen Grujicic – who was elected in 2016 after a campaign based on genocide denial – said that "there is new evidence every day that denies the current presentation of everything that has happened".

Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik has also described the massacre as a "myth".

But on Friday, the Muslim member of Bosnia's joint presidency, Sefik Dzaferovic, said: "We will tirelessly insist on the truth, on justice and on the need to try all those who have committed this crime.

"We will fight against those who deny the genocide and glorify its perpetrators," he said at the memorial centre where he attended a collective prayer.

In order to avoid large crowds on Saturday, organisers have invited people to visit the memorial centre over the whole month of July.

A number of different exhibitions are on display, including paintings by Bosnian artist Safet Zec.

An installation entitled Why Aren't You Here?, by US-Bosnian artist Aida Sehovic, comprises more than 8,000 cups of coffee spread out on the cemetery's lawn.

"We still haven't answered the question why they are no longer here," she said.

"How could this have happened in the heart of Europe, that people were killed in such a terrible way in a UN-protected area? Not to mention the fact that the genocide is still being denied."