Europe Marks Anniversary of Its Only Post-Holocaust Genocide

Thousands of people from Bosnia and around the world gathered in Srebrenica to mark the 30th anniversary of a 1995 massacre there of more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim boys and men, which has been acknowledged as Europe's only genocide after the Holocaust. Seven newly identified victims of the massacre, including two 19-year-old men, will be laid to rest in a collective funeral at a vast cemetery near Srebrenica Friday, next to more than 6,000 victims already buried there. Such funerals are held annually for the victims who are still being unearthed from dozens of mass graves around the town, reports the AP.

Victims' relatives, however, often can bury only partial remains of their loved ones as they are typically found in several mass graves, sometimes miles apart. Such was the case of Mirzeta Karic, who was waiting to bury her father. "Thirty years of search and we are burying a bone," she said, crying by her father's coffin. "I think it would be easier if I could bury all of him. What can I tell you, my father is one of the 50 (killed) from my entire family." July 11, 1995, is the day when the killings started after Bosnian Serb fighters overran the eastern Bosnian enclave in the final months of the war. After taking control of the protected UN safe zone, Bosnian Serb fighters separated Bosniak Muslim men and boys from their families and brutally executed them in days.

Scores of international officials and dignitaries were in Srebrenica Friday. Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said he was personally touched because UN troops from the Netherlands were based in Srebrenica when Bosnian Serbs stormed the town. "I feel humble to be here," he said. In an emotional speech, Munira Subasic, who heads the Mothers of Srebrenica, urged the world to "help us fight against hatred, against injustice." Subasic, who lost her husband and youngest son in Srebrenica along with more than 20 relatives, told Europe to "wake up." "As I stand here many mothers in Ukraine and Palestine are going through what we went through in 1995," Subasic said. "It's the 21st century but instead of justice, fascism has woken up."