POTOCARI, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Muslims and Jews from across Bosnia-Herzegovina traveled to the Srebrenica region -- site of a 1995 genocide during the Yugoslav war -- to jointly mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day and to sign an initiative designed to promote mutual understanding and dialogue between the two communities.
"Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Jews are one body. Our ties are intricate, forged in hard times and times of prosperity and interaction," Husein Kavazovic, head of Bosnia's Islamic Community, told a group of survivors and descendants of victims of the World War II-era Holocaust and the Srebrenica genocide.
"Both our peoples have suffered and experienced attempts to destroy and eradicate them. At the present time -- when the evils of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are gaining ground around Europe and the world -- we must renew our vow to be good neighbors and care for one another," he added.
In July 1995, more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were rounded up and killed by Bosnian Serb forces in Potocari near the eastern town of Srebrenica -- the worst mass killing in Europe since World War II.
The massacre has been deemed genocide by various verdicts of both the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague established that the killings constituted genocide.
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5
Bosnian Woman Buries Her Son's Skull At Srebrenica Memorial
International Holocaust Remembrance Day marked the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp during World War II in southern Poland. Nearly 6 million European Jews – among others -- were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust before and during the war.
Participants in the commemorative events also put the focus on the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, which has been declared a terrorist organization by the United States and the EU.
Menachem Rosensaft, president of the Bergen-Belsen World Federation, said mass killings, crimes, and genocides could have no justification.
"The Holocaust cannot be justified, the genocide in Srebrenica cannot be an excuse. Period. What Hamas has done cannot be justified, but at the same time we must have compassion for the civilians, women, and children who are suffering in occupied Gaza," Rosensaft said.
"We chose Srebrenica to start our initiative because genocide took place 28 years ago," said Reisu-l-ulema Husein ef. Kavazovic of Bosnia's Islamic community.
"This initiative that we signed today is an open field and a call to all well-meaning people, especially Muslims and Jews, to stop what is happening in Gaza.
"We advocate that all those who have committed crimes on both sides are brought to justice and held accountable for their actions, as has happened in previous cases when crimes and genocides were committed. This is the only way to achieve justice," he added.
One of the witnesses to the signing of the Muslim-Jewish peace initiative was Munira Subasic, president of the Association Movement of Mothers of Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves.
"This is a message to the world and to Europe to protect innocent human lives, not to differentiate between people," she told RFE/RL.
"This is a message from the victims of genocide who must be treated like people. Human life must be protected because everyone when they are born must have the right to life," she added.
About 50 percent of the Bosnian population is listed as Muslim Bosniak.
The World Jewish Congress says that some 500-1,000 Jews live in Bosnia, mostly descendants of Jews who settled in the region in the 15th century after fleeing the Spanish Inquisition. Much of the community was wiped out during the Holocaust.