Thousands Brave Heat to Mark Srebrenica Genocide Anniversary

Cries of anguish from victims' relatives could also be heard as thousands braved the 36-degree heat to attend the 28th anniversary commemoration and open-air collective prayer.

Bosniaks carry caskets with victims' remains during the funeral ceremony. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR.

Tuesday's burials took the number of genocide victims killed by Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995 who are buried at the Memorial Centre to 6,751. Around 1,000 victims' remains are yet to be found.

A Bosniak woman prays during the funeral ceremony. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR.

The youngest victim buried this year was Elvir Salcinovic, who was 15 years old when he was killed in 1995 and whose remains were found in the Liplje mass grave near the city of Zvornik in 2001.

Among the four minors whose remains were buried this year was 16-year-old Mustafa Mekanic, whose aunt told BIRN that when she last saw him alive, "he caught hold of me by the sleeve and said, 'Auntie, don't go.'"

She added: "I never saw him again, until now."

Mustafa Mekanic's aunt next to his coffin. Photo: BIRN. 

Diplomats, prosecutors, politicians, victims' relatives and genocide survivors were among hundreds who listened to commemorative speeches next to the Memorial Centre in the old Battery Factory in the village of Potocari, which in 1995 was a UN safe zone in which many Bosniaks sought refuge while trying to escape from Bosnian Serb forces.

Speakers sent the message that the genocide must never be forgotten. "The dead must not become statistics," said Menachem Rosensaft, general counsel of the World Jewish Congress.

Hamdija Fejzic gives a speech during the commemoration. Photo: N1.

Hamdija Fejzic, a genocide survivor and...