{"id":269936,"date":"2024-07-11T17:34:58","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T09:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=269936"},"modified":"2024-07-11T17:34:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T09:34:58","slug":"bosnian-muslims-commemorate-srebrenica-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=269936","title":{"rendered":"Bosnian Muslims commemorate Srebrenica genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/9uvBHq89P7NBdLQsY1CvWw--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyNDI7aD04Mjg7Y2Y9d2VicA--\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/afp.com.sg\/b21252d9430871d9cbbe7509653eb1f4\" alt=\"A Bosnian Muslim woman, a survivor of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, prays at the memorial cemetery in the village of Potocari (ELVIS BARUKCIC)\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>SREBRENICA (Bosnia), July 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Solemn mourners began gathering in Srebrenica on Thursday (Jul 11) to remember the 1995 massacre of Bosnian Muslims, less two months after the UN established a memorial day to mark the genocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces captured the eastern Bosnian town &#8211; which was then a UN-protected enclave &#8211; and killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the following days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was the worst massacre in Europe since World War II has been ruled a genocide by two international courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s hard when July comes. They ended up like this only because they had a different (Muslim) name,&#8221; said Mevlida Hasanovic as she prayed at the tomb of her cousin, who was 18 when he was killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hasanovic lost a dozen male relatives in the massacre including her father and husband, whose grave is next to her cousin&#8217;s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His remains were buried on two occasions since they were found in two different mass graves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 54-year-old woman is still looking for the remains of a brother to be found, &#8220;at least one bone&#8221;, to bury him, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Their souls know that we are here next to them. When I get here, I feel as if we just parted ways in Srebrenica.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In May, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring July 11 the &#8220;International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The resolution was fiercly opposed by Serbia and Bosnian Serbs, who continue to play down the crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has repeatedly denied a genocide occurred, and says his administration would not recognise the resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A UN court sentenced Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic and his army chief Ratko Mladic to life in prison for war crimes including the Srebrenica genocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bosnia&#8217;s 1992-1995 war between its Croats, Muslims and Serbs claimed approximately 100,000 lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nearly three decades after the war ended, the Balkan nation remains deeply divided along ethnic lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Thursday, the remains of 14 more victims of the bloodshed, including a 17-year-old boy, will be buried at a memorial cemetery in Potocari, just outside Srebrenica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beriz Mujic, whose remains were found in the Srebrenica region last year, will be laid to rest next to his brother Hazim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So far, the remains, often incomplete, of 6,988 Srebrenica victims have been buried, the overwhelming majority of them under white tombstones in Potocari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The remains were found in 87 mass graves, and a spokeswoman for Bosnia&#8217;s institute for missing persons said that they are still looking for around 1,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To cover up the crime, Bosnian Serb forces moved the bodies of the victims to so-called secondary mass graves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Wednesday, the European Union, which Bosnia aspires to join, called the atrocity &#8220;one of the darkest moments in modern European history&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;There is no place amongst us for those who deny genocide, attempt to rewrite history, and glorify war criminals,&#8221; EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and EU enlargement commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The annual commemoration ceremonies started on Monday with a 100km march towards Srebrenica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Several thousand people joined the march from the village of Nezuk, where the first survivors arrived days after the massacre. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SREBRENICA (Bosnia), July 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Solemn mourners began gathering in Srebrenica on Thursday (Jul 11) to remember the 1995 massacre of Bosnian Muslims, less two months after the UN established a memorial day to mark the genocide. On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces captured the eastern Bosnian town &#8211; which was then a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269936"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=269936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269937,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269936\/revisions\/269937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=269936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=269936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=269936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}