Bosnia Marks 17th Anniversary of Srebrenica Massacre Posted Tuesday, July 10th, 2012 at 7:15 pm Bosnia-Herzegovina is set to mark the 17th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre of thousands of Muslim men and boys at the hands of Bosnian Serb forces. People from across the nation and elsewhere are gathering near the eastern Bosnian town where the central commemoration is to take place Wednesday. The central event will be the burial of recently identified remains of 520 victims of the 1995 massacre. Organizers expect more than 30,000 to attend. Official delegations from many countries, including Serbia, will join survivors and victims' families at Wednesday's commemoration. Some ethnic Serb residents of Srebrenica, which is located in Bosnia's Serb Republic, reportedly plan to stay away. Munira Subasic, head of the rights group Mothers of Srebrenica and Zepa Movement, told VOA (Bosnian Service) that city leaders organized a soccer match and other summer entertainment for Wednesday. Subasic called the move offensive and provocative. At the start of the Bosnian war in 1992, Srebrenica was a mainly Muslim town in a Serb-held part of Bosnia, and as such gained protection by the United Nations. In July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces overran the so-called safe haven, separated women and children from men, and then systematically murdered the men in mass executions. Mass graves were later found in the area. It is believed that about 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in the bloodbath that has been labeled a genocide by both the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal and the International Court of Justice. But Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, as well as Serbia's new President Tomislav Nikolic, have reject the name genocide, while acknowledging the crime. Two top Bosnian Serb wartime leaders are on trial on war crimes charges, including genocide, at a U.N. tribunal in the Hague. International prosecutors opened their case against Bosnian Serb wartime military commander Ratko Mladic Monday, with the testimony of their first witness. Mladic has denied charges on all 11 points, saying that he only defended his people. Anglo-American journalist, professor and author Michael Dobbs, who covered the Bosnian conflict and peace talks for the New York Times, is attending the Mladic trial. He writes inForeign Policy magazine that the former general initially rejected the idea of ethnic cleansing and warned his aides that the international community would see it as genocide. But he says that, with time, Mladic became convinced of his invincibility and by 1995, he had lost all sense of restraint. Dobbs says that “a pile of U.N. resolutions that were never implemented, along with the fecklessness of western leaders,” convinced Mladic that he could get away with anything.
I was going to go last year, but each one of my family members said to stay away. The amount of sorrow and hurt is just .. can't even put it into words. RIP.
Like anticule said, there is no words to describe this. Its too much sadness, its cruel, its something that hurts not only the feelings and the heart, it hurts the soul. Its unbeliveable that human beings could do something so terrible. We cannot forget what happened 17 years ago, we have to let the world know how terrible it was, this is the only way to avoid that horrible things like that happens again at any part of the world. Guys, you know how much I love your contry, even if I'm not a bosnian, I feel for every life lost in this terrible massacre. RIP.
Apparently the Bosnian Serbs that live around the area are planning festivals, football games, parties, etc. specifically on the 11th and no other day. Also a group of them (like every single year) are planning to mock the people mourning their loved ones at the Srebrenica grave from a distance. The people are NO BETTER than the politicians that caused this, that's why I say never forget but never forgive either.
Lucasjeha: out of curiosity, why do you have a strong connection towards Bosnia? Family? Just curious.
No, my family has connections with Lebanon, Egypt, Portugal, France and Spain (lots of connections). The feeling towards Bosnia is something that grew inside me without reason, its a feeling like "there is something there that calls me" I know its strange. The first time I heard about Bosnia I was a little kid and I saw the news on tv about the war, back there I couldn't understand that very well, some years later in school we learned a bit of what happened, and since there it touched me, but the feeling kept asleep until some years ago, when I started looking for informations, I started liking Bosnia more and more, then the football came to table, I started to like a lot the national team, and this feeling keeps increasing. Like I said to Miske10 by PM, I admire a lot the bosnians, they suffered so much with the war, but they were able to build the country again after all the destruction and another thing that I admire is the faith, when people face terrible wars, they usually lost their faith after facing so much sadness, but with the bosnians is different, the faith is something that gives them strenght to go ahead, to try building a better future, its very touching, they never forget the beloved ones who passed away, they keep the loving feelings towards them inside their hearts, even if together there is the sad feeling of a death. When I see the videos from the Mars Mira and the people crying, its like I could feel some of the pain they are feeling, even though there is no way to really feel what they are feeling, its something that really touches me. And you know what's even more cruel, the same faith that gives them strenght, was the reason they were killed, the racism towards their religion caused this horrible massacre. Like I said before, I can't understand how human beings can do something like that. The fact that I suffered from religious racism makes me feel even closer to the bosnians, even if I don't have the same religion, the feeling of being mocked by having a different religion is something that I have in common with the bosnians.
Lucas your the man, In my opinion I think it's wrong to kill innocent unarmed civilians, now any armed military personnel they know they are going to war to die, it touches me when I hear about libya, Sudan and other places where genocide is and had occurred
The UN was a disaster in this entire ordeal. If they didn't get involved, the Srebrenica massacre would've happened in a much smaller scale, if at all. People would've escaped/fought back if the UN didn't group everyone together in "safe havens", and then allow the massacre to happen.
The arms embargo, the "safe havens", Dayton when we were starting to win the war and taking back Bosnian territories.. the world's involvement only hurt us. Yugoslavia actually had the 4th strongest military in the world at the time and the Serbs adopted most of that strength after the break-up and they still couldn't conquer an un-armed Bosnia. Much thanks to Tito's total national defense doctrine that Bosnian people adopted that allowed ordinary folks to repel armed forces. We also had territorial/strategic geniuses.
Nothing pisses me off more than Bosnian people saying "thank god for America", "thank god for clinton" faacckkk you. Man it's hard to smile for these 4 days. What a horrible massacre. And there's nothing we can do to make it better.
The Bosnian people have always been some of the best warriors in the world. Under the Ottomans they praised us for our bravery even against overwhelming odds.
i really hate this day, i didn't lose anyone other than my uncle losing his brother in the war, he was a sniper that climbed up an electrical pole and was shooting serbians soldiers off there and on like the fifth day it rained and he slipped and took hold of the wire and shocked him to death, but my uncles and grandpa where in camps and beaten everyday that they were in there, until they overthrew the camp. but i just hate remembering all the bad stuff that happened wish it never happened
Always say that the first causality in war is truth. Sad day for these victims in this area when people try to throw counter-evidence to show that Bosniaks also committed crimes, yet forget about the worst one -- Srebrenica. Amazing how two men that stand trial for the massacre of 10,000 people will most likely die before the verdict is read. It's one of the reasons I will be going to law school, because societal injustice such as this is appalling to say the least. But I always see that the same concepts are played over and over in genocide cases: the death of 1 is a tragedy, the death of a thousand, or million, is just a statistic. This is how the court system views it, and it's sad to see it. I deactivated my facebook, so I really can't see what my friends are saying, but I remember last year, walking through the city.. a place where cafana's will be booming with music, people walking and conversing, and kids running around.. yet, on this day, you can hear a pin drop in front of vjecna vatra. It goes to show that this atrocity shook the entire country and to think otherwise would be daft. RIP again to all that died, and not only in this area. Each soul that perished will be remembered.
RIP to all those who have died. I am fortunate most of my family survived after my dajdza got injured twice, and still lived. Such a depressing day and im glad I wasn't alive to experience the trauma from a conflict like this
Mate, you're grossly uninformed. I suggest you read up on Srebrenica and the entire Bosnian conflict. Clinton did almost next to nothing. Too little, too late. In fact, when America REALLY stepped in, we were well on our way of clearing all of our territory from cetnik possession.
I can't speak as if I know what really happend but I am just going by what my family said to me when I was a young boy. I might be grossly uninformed but every person in my family says the same thing about Clinton.