Today in Potočari, the 27th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica is being celebrated

In the Memorial Center of Srebrenica - Potočari, today will be the 27th anniversary of the genocide against Bosniaks committed by Serbian forces in July 1995.

There will be no Serbian officials at the commemoration, while the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Dritan Abazović, has announced that a large delegation from his government will come to Potočare.

Today, the remains of another 50 identified Srebrenica victims will be buried in Potočari.

The youngest victim who will be buried this year is Salim Mustafić, who was 1995 years old in July 16. Two more minors, who were 17 years old at the time of their death, will be buried in Potočari today.

So far, 6.671 victims of the Bosniak genocide of the "United Nations Safe Zone" Srebrenica have been buried in the Srebrenica Memorial Center - Potočari, while another 250 victims have been buried in other locations, in accordance with the wishes of the families. The search is still on for more than 1.000 missing people from Srebrenica.

The traditional "March of Peace", which honors the victims of Srebrenica, was held this year as well. On Friday, about 3.000 people set off from Nezuk on a three-day "March of Peace" towards Potočari. In July 1995, Bosniaks made their way through that path in the opposite direction, from Potočar to Nezuk, after Serb forces occupied Srebrenica.

Unlike the period from 2015 to 2019, July 11 this year, as in the previous two, is not a day of mourning in the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but only in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Serbian ministers in the BiH Council of Ministers rejected a few days ago the proposal of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bisera Turković, from the Democratic Action Party (SDA), that July 11 of this year be declared a day of mourning in the entire country.

Interethnic tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina before this year's commemoration in Potočari increased further after photos of 9 Serbian civilians and soldiers from central Podrinje, who were killed and died during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, were posted on July 3.267, next to the road leading from Bratunac to Potočari.

The Sarajevo media evaluated it as an "additional provocation". The police of the Republika Srpska ordered the removal of the photos, which the locals then moved to their private properties, to the yards by the road.

After entering the United Nations protected zone in July 1995, Serbian forces, led by the commander of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) Ratko Mladić, killed around 8.000 people, mostly men and boys.

The genocide against Bosniaks in Srebrenica has been confirmed by numerous court rulings, from the International Court of Justice in The Hague, through the Hague Tribunal, to courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia.

For genocide, crimes against humanity and other crimes committed in Srebrenica in July 1995, the Hague Tribunal and courts in BiH, Serbia and Croatia have so far sentenced 47 people to more than 700 years in prison.

Mladić was sentenced to life imprisonment before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, as was the former president of Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadžić. Three more high-ranking VRS officers were sentenced to life imprisonment for the genocide in Srebrenica.

Despite this, Serbian political elites in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia have not shown a willingness to face the past and to admit that genocide was committed in Srebrenica.

In 2009, the European Parliament passed the Resolution on Srebrenica, which called on the EU member states and the countries of the Western Balkans to mark July 11 as a day of remembrance for the genocide in Srebrenica.

After that, in 2010, the Serbian Parliament adopted the Declaration on the condemnation of the crimes in Srebrenica, which was proposed by the ruling coalition, led by the Democratic Party of the then President of Serbia, Boris Tadić. 127 out of 250 deputies voted for the Declaration, after several hours of heated discussion.

The declaration refers to the verdict of the International Court of Justice from February 2007, which states that genocide was committed in Srebrenica. However, the term genocide is not mentioned in the Declaration.

In 2018, the authorities of Republika Srpska took a new step in an attempt to minimize the crime of Serb forces in Srebrenica, by canceling the Report of the Commission for Srebrenica, which was adopted by the Government of Republika Srpska in June 2004.

Although the Report of the Commission for Srebrenica never became generally accepted throughout BiH, neither by Bosniaks nor by Serbs, the fact is that the authorities of Republika Srpska, by adopting it, for the first time publicly and institutionally acknowledged that Serb forces were in Srebrenica, from July 10 to 19, 1995 , committed mass executions of Bosniaks.

The resolution condemning the Srebrenica genocide was adopted by the parliaments of Montenegro and Kosovo last year. The Croatian Parliament did so in 2009, and the Parliament of North Macedonia in 2010.

The former High Representative in BiH, Valentin Incko, imposed a law in July of last year, a few days before the end of his mandate, which prohibits the denial of genocide in BiH.