![Mourners carry the green-draped coffins of newly identified victims during the 30th anniversary commemoration of the Srebrenica genocide. [Image by Release Peace]](https://www.thepostnews.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/UN-Screb_res-768x577-1.jpg)
Mourners carry the green-draped coffins of newly identified victims during the 30th anniversary commemoration of the Srebrenica genocide. [Image by Release Peace]
(The Post News)- Thousands of mourners and victims’ relatives gathered at the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Cemetery on Friday to mark the 30th anniversary of the murder of more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys during the 1995 genocide—Europe’s only legally recognized genocide since the Holocaust.
Families laid to rest the newly discovered bodies of seven victims, a woman and two 19-year-olds, as well as the 6,750 already buried. More than three decades later, some 1,000 victims remain missing, their bones still strewn in secondary and tertiary mass graves in eastern Bosnia—a ghastly reminder of an attempted cover-up.
I feel such pain and grief for all these individuals and children,” said Sabaheta, a woman from Gorazde, standing in front of rows of white headstones inscribed with the names of the dead. “Who can claim this wasn’t genocide? Only someone who has no soul.”.
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On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces led by General Ratko Mladić overran the U.N.-designated “safe area” of Srebrenica. The Dutch peacekeepers, understrength and underequipped, were powerless to prevent the genocide. During a series of several days, at least 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were gathered up and taken away from their families, slaughtered, and buried in mass graves.
To cover up the number of massacres, some of the bodies were later dug up and buried in remote spots. This has left families crying over fragments—sometimes a bone.
“Thirty years of searching and we’re burying a bone,” cried Mirzeta Karić. “My father is one of 50 killed members of my family. I think it would be easier if I could bury all of him.”
The 30th anniversary was not only marked by the burial ceremony but also by a three-day peace march, going in the opposite direction of the terrifying 100 kilometre trek taken by some of the survivors in 1995. The march had nearly 7,000 participants, honoring the victims and recommitting to a sustained commitment to peace and remembrance.
World leaders and politicians attended to pay tribute. European Council President António Costa laid flowers and called for unity: “We stand united with the bereaved families left behind. There is no place in Europe or anywhere else for genocide denial, revisionism, or glorification of the perpetrators.”
Britain’s King Charles issued a message of remembrance and said, “This does not excuse the rest of us from our responsibilities: both to recognise the failure of the international community to prevent the atrocity and to make certain that it never recurs.”
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, in a recorded message, reflected on his visit to the site during his time as Dutch Prime Minister, with sadness at his country’s role. “We will never forget the horror of those dark days,” he stated.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and several other courts convicted 54 individuals—handing out five life sentences and over 780 years in prison for Srebrenica atrocities. Both General Ratko Mladić and politician Radovan Karadžić got life sentences for genocide.
Nevertheless, genocide denial continues. Authorities in Republika Srpska, the Serb-controlled part of Bosnia, and bordering Serbia continue to downplay the massacre. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who expressed condolences, avoided saying the term “genocide” to characterize the massacre but called it a “terrible crime.”.
This denial activates ethnic tensions in a country that is still divided along the fault lines inscribed by the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the war but entrenched ethnic divisions and eroded central authority.
Munira Subašić, whose son and husband died and now leads the Mothers of Srebrenica group, said defiantly: “We’re still struggling against hatred and denial. Europe must wake up. There are many mothers in Palestine and Ukraine going through what we went through in 1995.”
The play Flowers of Srebrenica, which premiered this week at Sarajevo’s War Theatre, caught not just the violence of the genocide but also the lingering trauma and divisions stoked by nationalist politics today. On stage, actors dug in the dirt to find shoes, watches, and bones—echoing the fact that families still look for closure.
The Republika Srpska government officials did not take much interest in the commemoration. Foreign Trade Minister Staša Košarac dismissed the genocide narrative as one-sided. “Bosniaks want to speak only about Bosniak victims,” he claimed, causing outrage among survivors as well as foreign monitors.
Bosnia’s High Representative Christian Schmidt, the top foreign official in Bosnia, posed revisionism threats. “This is dangerous meddling with people who survived 1990s atrocities’ memory. We should have a stronger international presence to maintain peace.”
While rain poured over Sarajevo, a procession with the coffins of newly identified victims was bid a dignified farewell by thousands of onlookers. Memorial posters and digital billboards reminded passersby to “Remember Srebrenica.” But a few minutes away, in East Sarajevo, silence was so profound it sounded like a scream.
For someone like Mirela Osmanović, born post-war and with two brothers killed in the mass killing, the rekindled tensions along ethnic lines are too familiar. “My parents say it’s like 1992 again,” she said.
As Bosnia reflects on a tragedy that shaped its past and continues to define its present, the call from survivors and the global community is simple: remembrance is not enough—truth, justice, and vigilance are the only route forward.
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