Ten newly identified victims were interred, bringing the total number of identified victims to over 8,000 Bosniak men and boys.
Published On 11 Jul 2026
Commemorations across Bosnia and Herzegovina marked the 31st anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, with global leaders and activist groups urging renewed efforts to combat dehumanisation.
On Saturday, mourners, survivors, foreign dignitaries and religious leaders convened at the Srebrenica‑Potocari Memorial Center to honor those killed in 1995. Participants took part in the annual peace march prior to the burial of ten newly identified victims.
Bosnian Serb forces seized the eastern town of Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, murdering more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys over several days. Srebrenica had been designated a UN‑protected “safe area” two years earlier.
Denis Becirovic, Chairman of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Presidency, emphasized that honoring the victims is essential for preserving national stability.
“If we fail to preserve the truth about our past, we will have neither a present nor a future,” he said.
Henk van den Dool, the Dutch ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, stated that education is vital for preventing repetition of such atrocities.
“One of our shared objectives with the Srebrenica Memorial Center, the mothers and the survivors is to turn this enduring warning into concrete action, and education is one of the most effective means to achieve it,” he said.
Pursuit of justice
Each year on July 11, newly identified victims are interred at the Srebrenica‑Potocari Memorial Center, while investigators persist in locating the remains of those buried in nearby mass graves.
More than a thousand victims remain missing, and the genocide is widely regarded as the most severe atrocity in Europe since the Holocaust during World War II.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described the massacre as a crime against humanity, while London Mayor Sadiq Khan posted on X that he was “deeply moved” during his recent visit to Srebrenica.
“As we remember the victims and their families, we must also commit to combating violence and dehumanisation wherever it appears and to preventing hatred from taking root,” Khan said.
Over 100,000 people perished during the Bosnian War (1992‑1995), a conflict that erupted after Yugoslavia’s dissolution and triggered a cascade of ethnic wars across the Balkans.
Recently, activists have drawn parallels between the Srebrenica genocide and Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, criticized the lack of legal accountability for senior Israeli officials involved in what he termed a genocidal campaign.
“The United Nations this week commemorated the genocide in Bosnia – the killing of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in July 1995. While the perpetrators of that genocide have been convicted, those responsible for the atrocities in Gaza have yet to face legal accountability,” Roth wrote on X.