SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims prayed for the dead in Srebrenica and buried hundreds more recovered bodies Saturday on the 14th anniversary of Europe’s worst massacre since World War II.
Family members laid to rest the remains of 534 victims, removed recently from mass graves, next to the existing 3,297 graves at the Srebrenica-Potocari memorial center.
Visitors and dignitaries prayed for the 8,100 Muslim men and boys who were killed in Srebrenica over several days in 1995 when Serb forces overran the town.
The U.S. ambassador to Bosnia, Charles English, said that President Barack Obama has called the Srebrenica slaughter “a stain in our collective consciousness” and that the world has to ask itself how this genocide could have happened.
During the 1992-95 Bosnian war, the United Nations declared Srebrenica, which had been besieged by Serb forces throughout the war, a U.N.-protected area for civilians. A number of Bosnians flocked there for protection.
But in July 1995, Serb troops led by Gen. Ratko Mladic overran the enclave. The outnumbered U.N. troops never fired a shot. They watched as Mladic’s troops rounded up the population of Srebrenica and took the men away for execution.
It has been described by former Secretary-General Kofi Annan as the darkest page in U.N. history.
Every year, more victims’ bodies are recovered from mass graves in the area, identified through DNA analysis and buried.
This year among the 534 victims, there are 44 teenagers. Four were 14 when they were killed.
