The remains of 50 recently identified victims of the Srebrenica genocide were buried on July 11 as Bosnia-Herzegovina marked the 27th anniversary of the killings of thousands of Bosnian Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serbian forces during the Bosnian war.
And for the first time, the Netherlands offered an apology to the people of Srebrenica for the failure of Dutch forces to prevent the genocide in the town during the 1992-95 war.
More than 3,000 people participated in the March of Peace 2022 that culminated on July 10 following a 110-kilometer, three-day hike to the Potocari memorial cemetery ahead of the ceremony. Commemorations the past two years were limited because of the coronavirus pandemic.
SEE ALSO: Here Are The Faces Of Thousands Who Died In SrebrenicaParticipants in the march crossed the route that Srebrenica residents took in the summer of 1995 after the fall of the city to Bosnian Serb forces.
Thousands were expected to attend the commemoration, which most Serbs and their leaders refuse to recognize in the ethnically divided country. Still, in Belgrade, some groups said they will organize a gathering in the Serbian capital with the goal of having July 11 declared as the Day of Remembrance in that country.
In Srebrenica, Hamdija Fejzic, chairman of the organizing committee for the commemoration of the anniversary and deputy head of the Srebrenica municipality, said he was fortunate to have survived the genocide, which he called a "defeat of humanity."
He said the horrific event must never become just a footnote in the history of mankind and that only by recognition can reconciliation be realized.
He urged officials in Bosnia-Herzegovina to take concrete steps to make Srebrenica "a city of life, not a place of death."
“In Srebrenica, children born after the genocide grow and they are our hope,” he said. “It is our obligation to provide these children with normal conditions of life. We do not need big words but concrete steps that will allow children to grow up together, regardless of national and religious affiliation."
Michael Murphy, the U.S. ambassador to Sarajevo, said the killings represented "a dark event in history, not only for [Bosnia-Herzegovina] but for all of humanity."
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and enlargement commissioner Oliver Varhely honored the Srebrenica victims in a joint statement, saying, "We stand together, in grief, with their relatives and friends who survived the genocide."
"It is more than ever our duty to remember the genocide of Srebrenica as part of our common European history...to stand up to defend peace, human dignity, and universal values.”
Thousands Gather To Commemorate The Srebrenica Genocide And Bury Victims
In July 1995, more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were rounded up and killed by Bosnian Serb forces in the eastern town of Srebrenica -- the worst mass killing in Europe since World War II.
So far, 6,671 people have been identified and buried.
Many of the victims had fled to a UN-declared "safe zone" in Srebrenica, only to find the outnumbered Dutch peacekeepers there unable to defend them.
On July 11, Dutch Defense Minister Kasja Ollongren, who attended the ceremony, said "the international community failed to offer adequate protection to the people of Srebrenica.”
“The Dutch government shares responsibility for the situation in which that failure occurred. For this, we offer our deepest apologies," she said.
The massacre was labeled as genocide by international courts, but Serbian and Bosnian Serb officials refuse to accept that wording.
The episode came at the end of the 1992-95 Bosnian War pitting the Serbs against Bosniaks and Croats that claimed some 100,000 lives.
Both the wartime Bosnian Serb army commander, Ratko Mladic, and former political leader Radovan Karadzic were subsequently sentenced to life in prison by the UN war crimes court in the Netherlands for genocide in Srebrenica.