Commemoration in Sarajevo: Sirens Mark 31st Anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide

Emza Fazlic, a staff member at the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, explained that, on average, only about 50 percent of the skeleton is present for the victims currently being interred. "Besonders von den Menschen, die dieser Tage beigesetzt werden, sind im Durchschnitt nur etwa 50 Prozent des Skeletts vorhanden," said Fazlic. She emphasized that the search for remains continues bone by bone over the course of years.

The Search for the Missing

Fazlic pointed out that the victims' relatives keep hoping that more mass graves will be found so that the remains can be buried in as complete a state as possible. "Das zeigt, dass dieses Verbrechen bis heute andauert - in gewisser Weise," she said. The work of identification requires reopening graves and contacting families again to obtain their consent for further burials — a process that forces the bereaved, decades later, to relive their trauma.

Munira Subasic, president of the association "Mothers of Srebrenica," a coalition of bereaved families, reported that she had survived the genocide, but that 22 of her family members had been killed, including her husband and her youngest son. "Ich habe den Völkermord überlebt, aber 22 meiner Familienangehörigen wurden umgebracht," said Subasic. She added: "Sie wurden umgebracht, weil sie einen anderen Namen hatten und muslimisch waren."

Personal Stories

Subasic also described the personal dimension of the search for remains: "Ich habe nur zwei Knochen von meinem Sohn gefunden, aber ich habe einen Grabstein; einen Ort, um zeigen, dass er in Srebrenica gelebt hat. Aber viele Mütter haben das nicht." Alnes Alic, one of the newly interred victims, was one year old when his father was murdered. His grandparents, his father, three paternal uncles, three maternal uncles, and other relatives perished in the war. "Meine Großeltern wurden im Krieg getötet, mein Vater ebenfalls," the family said.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated in the context of the commemoration: "Erinnerung heiße auch, sich in der Gegenwart gegen Hass und Diskriminierung zu stellen." The European Commission likewise paid tribute to the more than 8,300 murdered Muslim men and boys. Two years ago, the UN General Assembly had declared July 11 an international day of remembrance, over the resistance of Serbia.

International Reactions and the Role of the UN

The role of the Dutch UN peacekeepers who were stationed in the town at the time of the fall of Srebrenica remains a controversial chapter. The Dutch government apologized in 2022 in connection with the events. Relatives of the victims had accused the Dutch Blue Helmet soldiers of having observed the killings without intervening. The peacekeepers were outnumbered and, according to the established facts, had an unclear military mandate.

After Bosnian Serb militias captured the town on July 11, 1995, they killed thousands of Bosniaks — most of whom had taken refuge in a UN safe zone — within a few days. To this day, 900 people from Srebrenica remain listed as missing. The search for further mass graves and the identification of remains continue, while newly identified victims are buried in Potocari each year.

This year's memorial ceremony underscored the ongoing dimension of the crime: even 31 years after the killings, families in Sarajevo and across Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be confronted with the search for the remains of their loved ones. The minute of silence at 12 o'clock was a sign that the memory of Srebrenica retains a firm place in the country's public consciousness.