prijava
SREBRENICA, July 11 (FENA) - The BiH Presidency member Šefik Džaferović said today at the Potočari Memorial Center during the marking of the 24th anniversary of the genocide against Bosniaks in Srebrenica that Srebrenica will remain forever remain a stain on the face of all those who could have done something but did not prevent genocide.
“Today we are here to bury the remains of 33 innocent people. What could a16 year-old boy Osman Cvrk be guilty of, whose remains we are burying today? What can all the other children whose graves are here in Potočari be guilty of? What is the guilt of just a young man, the brothers Asim and Kasim Isaković? What was the guilt of Zaim Pilav and his son Fuad? What was the guilt of the 82-year-old Šaha Cvrk and all the other elderly who were killed? What was the blame of all those men, women, pregnant women, newborns, boys, elderly, men who defended their families and their bare lives,” asked Džaferović.
In his words, the reason they were killed was only one - they were Bosniaks and they were Muslims. That was the only and sufficient reason for Karadžić and Mladić's death squads in the army and RS police, assisted by paramilitaries from Serbia, that in only a few days of July 1995, they managed to organize and systematically, in a sordid manner, annihilate more than 8,300 people.
More than 1,000 people were killed per day. Almost every minute, life was being taken away from the innocent ones, helpless human beings.
“The goal was to completely erase the existence of one people in this area. The crime happened in front of the eyes of the whole world. The United Nations with their resolution proclaimed a protected zone, but did not, when they had to do, take steps to prevent the worst crime in Europe since World War II. Srebrenica will forever remain a stain on the face of all those who could have, but did nothing to prevent genocide.
This has been recognized by the UN officials a few years later. Unfortunately, even today, representatives of the international community is again avoiding taking a more resolute reaction, this time it is about the denial of genocide and glorifying of war crimes,” said Džaferović.
He said that by not preventing genocide in the area declared by the UN Security Council as a "UN protected zone", the international community lost credibility in the eyes of many around the world. The only chance for the United Nations and the international community to reclaim a part of the lost credibility is to firmly condemn those who deny the truth about the crime and glorify its perpetrators,” stressed Džaferović.
He says that the crime of genocide has continued in many forms after the death of the innocent. In order to conceal the crime, the bodies of victims were additionally disfigured by moving them from grave to grave for months after the genocide. The remains of one person were found in two, three, even in four different mass graves. As the act of genocide itself, was organized and systematic, so was the attempt to systematically hide and conceal all the evidence of it,” underlined Džaferović.
According to him, the continuation of crime against victims, or at least the collusion in the crime, "we see in the silence that lasts now for 24 years after the genocide, as we have not found the bodies of all those were killed".
More than 1,700 victims have still not been found and identified. Those victims still have no grave and have not been buried in a way that is dignified for every human being.
Džaferović pointed out that genocide is being denied despite the judgments of the International Court of Justice and the ICTY.
He emphasizes that, by denying genocide and glorifying war criminals, this not only offends the victims and their families, but they are pushing a finger in the eye of the whole civilized world, who knows what is true and who understands what the judgments of international courts mean.
“The way they are currently going about it is all wrong. The right way would be to recognize the genocide, to accept the judgments, to clearly and unequivocally distance themselves from the creators and perpetrators of the genocide and the ideology that produced it; to support, together with us, the adoption of laws on the prohibition of denial of genocide and glorification of war crimes. Only then, on the foundations of truth and accepting court judgments, we can rebuild the trust that we need, both for us and for the generations to come," emphasized Džaferović.
Džaferović noted that the truth about the genocide in Srebrenica is forever carved into the collective consciousness of the civilized world. It is witnessed by numerous events in a large number of cities around the world, on all continents, in which the anniversary of genocide is marked these days.
We will continue coming to Potočari. Forever. We will forever remember the victims of genocide, but it is our duty to take care of the people and restoring of life here in this region, to take care of the people who are returning and living in Srebrenica and the whole of Podrinje,” concluded Džaferović in his address.
(FENA) S. R.
