prijava
SARAJEVO, April 29 (FENA) - Twenty-five victims of genocide have been identified so far that should be buried on July 11 this year in the Memorial Center in Potočari. Their families have declared that they want to bury their mortal remains, said spokeswoman of the Missing Persons Institute of BiH, Lejla Čengić in an interview with FENA.
Author: Aida Kovač
The first collective burial in the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center was conducted 15 years ago, when the first 600 victims of the Srebrenica genocide were buried in the memorial center in July 1995. To date, 6,575 victims have been buried in the complex of the Memorial Center.
Čengić noted that this is not yet the final number of victims to be buried in Potočari this year. It is planned in the following period to carry out identification in the Podrinje Identification Project (PIP) in Tuzla, up until the burial in July.
Čengić stated that among the identified victims are two minors who were 16 when they were killed. Vesid Ibrić was 16 years old when he was killed. His remains were exhumed in 2001 from the mass grave Liplje, in the Zvornik area.
Faris Mehmedović was also 16 years old when he was killed and his remains were exhumed from two secondary mass graves. Parts of the skeleton were found in 2000 in the mass grave Glogova, in the Bratunac area, and his remains were also found in 2009 in the mass grave Zalazje, in the Srebrenica area.
The Podrinje Identification Project, in addition to the remains of the victims for whom the families have decided to bury them, also keeps the remains of victims of the genocide for whom the families have not yet decided to go forth with the burial.
These are the remains of victims who have been officially identified, on the basis of DNA analysis and by family members, but mostly because of the incomplete remains, the families they have not yet decided to bury them,” explained Čengić.
Čengil also added that the PIP currently holds the remains of 44 victims who have been officially identified on the basis of DNA analysis and by the families, but mostly due to the incompleteness of the remains, the families have not yet decided to bury their loved ones.
She also noted that the remains of the identified victims were exhumed in the earlier period from mass graves in the area of Lower Drina River Basin.
“A significantly lower number of identified victims that will be buried on July 11 this year in Potočari compared to earlier years is due to the lack of information on potential individual and mass graves,” explained Čengić in an interview with FENA.
(FENA) S. R.
