19 Genocide Victims to be Buried on Srebrenica Anniversary
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A Bosniak women’s at the Srebrenica Memorial Centre during last year’s commemoration. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR.
The Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina told BIRN that 19 people’s remains will be laid to rest in a ceremony at the cemetery at the Srebrenica Memorial Centre on July 11.
Missing Persons Institute spokesperson Emza Fazlic said that the youngest victim to be buried this year will be Azmir Osmanovic, who was killed at the age of 16.
His remains were found in a mass grave in Poljanci and he was identified in May this year.
“Another minor, Fikret Kiveric, who died at the age of 17, will find his final rest this year. His remains were exhumed in the village of Kamenica in 2008. He was officially identified in 2013. His family found the strength to bury his mortal remains eight years later,” Fazlic said.
Fazlic said that after the burials of these teenagers, a total of 435 minors killed in the genocide will have been buried at the Memorial Centre cemetery.
A father and son, Hajro and Jusuf Aljic, will also be On July 11. Hajro Aljic was 51 when he was killed, while his son was 28.
“The oldest victim to find final rest at the Memorial Centre this year is Husein Kurbasic, who was killed at the age of 63,” Fazlic said.
She added that the remains of 88 more Srebrenica victims, whose DNA analysis results have arrived but who have not yet been identified by their families, are being kept at the Commemorative Centre in Tuzla.
“On the other hand, 36 more victims have been identified, but their families have still not given consent to their burial, mostly owing to the scarce skeletal remains found so far,” Fazlic said.
So far, 6,652 victims of the July 1995 genocide by Bosnian Serb forces have been buried at the Srebrenica Memorial Centre, while another 237 victims have been buried at other locations, according the wishes of their families.
The search for around 1,000 missing persons from Srebrenica continues.
More than 7,000 people, mostly men and boys, were killed and more than 40,000 women, children and elderly people were deported from Srebrenica in July 1995 during the genocide.
