BOSNIA-SREBRENICA VICTIMS/ARRIVAL Remains of Srebrenica victims arrive for burial

Record ID: 147869

  • Title: BOSNIA-SREBRENICA VICTIMS/ARRIVAL Remains of Srebrenica victims arrive for burial
  • Date: 9th July 2015
  • Summary: SREBRENICA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (JULY 9, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CROWD INCLUDING RELATIVES OF VICTIMS WAITING VARIOUS OF TRUCK ARRIVING CARRYING REMAINS OF 136 BODIES, WHICH INCLUDE 18 BODIES OF 16-YEAR-OLDS, ARRIVING FLOWERS ON TRUCK TRUCK ARRIVING PEOPLE WATCHING TRUCK ARRIVING PEOPLE WATCHING PEOPLE WALKING BEHIND TRUCK MAN UNTYING TARPAULIN ON TRUCK DOORS OF TRUC
  • Embargoed: 24th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA32KS9I5Y442KWPRJK79B9P210
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Over 130 recently identified victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre were ready to be finally laid to rest on Thursday (July 9) when they were moved from a morgue and brought to the Potocari area of Srebrenica for burial.
    On Saturday (July 11), Bosnia marks the 20th anniversary of Europe's worst mass killing since World War Two - the slaughter of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces during five July days in 1995.
    Crowds of people, including friends and relatives of the victims, lined the streets to greet the trucks bearing the coffins and mourn the dead.
    The vehicles, which were covered in flowers, had brought the remains from a morgue in the city of Visoko and carried them through the capital Sarajevo, where hundreds came to pay their respects.
    Upon arriving in Potocari, the coffins were were set down in rows to allow grieving loved ones remember the dead before their remains are interred beneath white marble headstones at Saturday's ceremonies.
    Of the 136 victims returned on Thursday, 18 were identified by forensic pathologists as belonging to minors killed at the age of 16, bringing the total number of underage victims of the massacre to 440.
    Bodies are still being recovered in the mountains and forests surrounding what was a United Nations enclave during the Bosnian war.
    Investigators believe at least one more big grave eludes them, while the accused architects - Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and military commander Ratko Mladic - are still standing trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, fiercely unrepentant.
    As such, Srebrenica remains an open wound, the lack of closure a dark shadow over Bosnia, where many Serbs still dispute what went on.
    For Muslim Bosniaks, Srebrenica has become a symbol of collective suffering. Serbs see it as a stick for the world to beat them with; many dispute the death toll and deny it was genocide, as the U.N. tribunal has ruled.
    Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic announced that he would attend the anniversary commemoration.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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