Today is the 15th Anniversary of the start of the Srebrenica Massacre in which over 7000 Bosniaks (Muslim Bosnians) were slaughtered by Serbs swapite being in a so called UN safe area.Today hundreds of victims of the Srebrenica massacre were buried at a ceremony to mark the 15th anniversary of the atrocity/ 775 coffins with the remains of newly identified victims from mass graves are being laid to rest at the Potocari cemetery, outside Srebrenica.
In a significant development Serbian President Boris Tadic is attending the ceremony. In March, Serbia's parliament passed a landmark resolution apologising for the massacre, saying Belgrade should have done more to prevent the tragedy.
Bosnian Security Minister Sadik Ahmetovic told the crowd the international community should help bring fugitive Bosnian Serb wartime military commander Radko Mladic - "the man who brought us our suffering" - to justice.
Mr Tadic, whose attendance brought a mixed response from mourners, said: "With the arrest of General Mladic I would know that part of my job is finished. We need this for the future, for building confidence, for our forthcoming generations."
Hasan and Suhra Mahic, both in their 80s, were finally burying their sons Fuad and Suad. "I would have preferred that all of us have been killed together, then we would not have had to live through this," Hasan told the AFP news agency.
Ramiza Gurdic was burying her son Mehrudin, alongside her husband and another son already in the cemetery. "How can you forget, how can you forgive? I think about them every day. I go to bed with the pain and I wake up with the sadness."
What more could I add to tis?
7 comments:
Those were such turbulent times. I visited the former Yugoslavia before it split so in a way the aftermath wasn't surprising to me, but it is still very sad.
It was an atrocity.. sad but appalling
One could add that in the Wars of the Yugoslav Succession there were victims and perpetrators of atrocities on all sides, and that the Western media, for their own pruposes, gave a thoroughly distorted picture, and that the role of outside players, especially the former West Germany, in fanning the flames of the conflict has been underreported in the Western media.
And this diminishes the slaughter how?
My husband and I had been following a number of very creative visual artists who were living and working in Belgrade before that disaster struck. Strangely, a number of the pieces seemed to telegraph what was about to occur but couldn't stop it. We've often wondered if any of them survived the terrible tragedy.
In my comment, I did not say anything about diminishing the slaughter, but you asked what could be added, and so I pointed out what could be added.
But since you ask about diminishing, this, perhaps Srebrenica: The Sacred Lie by Nebojsa Malic -- Antiwar.com.
The media found it convenient to exaggerate some atrocities, like Srebrenica, and to downplay others.
I hope they did Susan
Steve, I don't doubt that atrocities took place on all sides. This one sticks out in particular because of the spinelessness oif the UN who did nothing to stop the slaughter.
Other atrocities do need to be known too. THat said the source you pointed to seems to me to be a revisionist
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