31st Anniversary of Srebrenica Genocide Commemorated

Potocari Memorial Center, Srebrenica , July 11 2026 (BETAPHOTO/HINA/FENA/AMER KAJMOVIC)

The 31st anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide was commemorated at the Potocari Memorial Center on July 11, followed by a collective funeral and burial for 10 newly identified victims. The commemoration was held at a former car battery factory, once used as a base by United Nations peacekeepers.

A religious ceremony was headed by Husein Kavazovic, head of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who called for „grief to become a source of strength, justice to take the place of revenge and a mother’s tears to become a prayer that Srebrenica is never repeated, anywhere or against anyone.“

“Here, we see not only the lives of fathers, sons and brothers cut short, but also the immeasurable courage of the mothers of Srebrenica,” Kavazovic said. “They chose the path of truth and justice instead of revenge. Their strength and moral example are a lesson to the entire world in how to bear grief with dignity and fight for truth and justice,” he added.

The commemoration was attended by the highest-ranking officials of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, diplomats and thousands of citizens. Republika Srpska was not represented at the ceremony in Potocari. While media outlets in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina provided minute-by-minute coverage, most media outlets in the Bosnian Serb entity ignored the event.

In July 1995 Bosnian Serb forces under the command of General Ratko Mladic seized the United Nations-protected enclave of Srebrenica. According to official figures, more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed. The International Court of Justice, the Hague-based war crimes tribunal and domestic courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina have all ruled that genocide was committed in Srebrenica. The courts have convicted 54 people of crimes related to Srebrenica, sentencing them to a total of more than 781 years in prison, including five life sentences for genocide. Republika Srpska’s former president Radovan Karadzic and wartime Bosnian Serb military commander, Ratko Mladic, have both been sentenced to life in prison.