- Title: At Srebrenica, Iraq's Yazidiz demand genocide recognition
- Date: 11th July 2017
- Summary: SREBRENICA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (JULY 11, 2017) (REUTERS) CEMETERY AT SREBRENICA MEMORIAL CENTRE WOMAN WALKING AMONG WHITE TUMBSTONES PEOPLE AT CEMETERY GRAVES PREPARED FOR FUNERAL WOMAN SITTING NEXT TO COFFIN AND MOURNING MAN STANDING AMONG GRAVES WOMAN TOUCHING COFFIN PREPARED FOR FUNERAL (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) YAZIDI ACTIVIST, BASMA NAJI, SAYING: "I would like to thank the women's organisation and the PAX organisation for this invitation. We are an Iraqi Yazidi group who can identify with the Bosnians and benefit from the experience that they gained in this field and what steps they took after the genocide." MUSLIM PRAYER MAN LINED UP NEXT TO COFFINS PEOPLE PRAYING COFFINS ON THE GROUND PEOPLE PRAYING PEOPLE CARRYING COFFINS AT CEMETERY PEOPLE LAYING COFFINS IN GRAVES EARTH BEING THROWN IN GRAVES FUNERAL IN PROGRESS
- Embargoed: 25th July 2017 18:05
- Keywords: Srebrenica massacre genocide Bosnian muslims anniversary Yazidi
- Location: SREBRENICA, POTOCARI, KAMENICA, TUZLA, SANDICI, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
- City: SREBRENICA, POTOCARI, KAMENICA, TUZLA, SANDICI, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
- Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA0016P9W6YH
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS GRAPHIC VIDEO
Four Yazidis from Iraq joined thousands of Bosnian Muslims at a commemoration on Tuesday (July 11) of the 8,000 men and boys killed in 1995 at Srebrenica and called for atrocities committed against their sect by Islamic State to be recognised as genocide.
The Srebrenica massacre by Bosnian Serb forces near the end of Bosnia's war was declared a genocide by two United Nations courts and leaders including General Ratko Mladic have been prosecuted at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
The 2014 killings at Sinjar of thousands of Yazidis by IS militants who buried some alive and took thousands of women as slaves have also been called a genocide by a U.N. commission but activists are seeking wider recognition and prosecutions.
Tuesday's commemoration of the killings at Srebrenica 22 years ago included the burials of 71 newly identified victims at a cemetery near the eastern town, bringing the total number interred there to 6,575.
More than 1,000 men and boys are still missing. The Serb forces dumped the victims' bodies in pits and subsequently dug them up and scattered them in a systematic effort to conceal the crime, Europe's worst atrocity since World War Two.
Yazidis will commemorate the Sinjar massacre in August.
The activists attending the Srebrenica anniversary, who also included two Iraqis, said they hoped to use the Srebrenica families' experiences to help build cases against IS fighters that can eventually be used in international criminal courts.
Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic was jailed last year for 40 years by The Hague tribunal while his military chief Mladic is still being tried on genocide charges.
Dozens of Bosnian Serb lower-ranking officials were jailed over the Srebrenica atrocity by the Bosnian war crimes court.
Most Serbs strongly deny the massacre was genocide, however, and regard Karadzic and Mladic as national heroes. That divide continues to hinder reconciliation and stifle Bosnia's progress towards integration with Western Europe. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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