SARAJEVO-SREBRENICA, July 11: More than 6,000 Bosnian Muslims gathered on Thursday in Srebrenica to mark the seventh anniversary of the 1995 massacre, making it the biggest gathering of Muslims in this town since the 1992-1995 war.
Up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men were killed when Bosnian Serb troops captured the former Muslim enclave of Srebrenica on July 11, 1995. Thousands more were killed trying to escape, and more than 30,000 Muslim women, children and elderly were expelled.
In order to secure the commemoration, more than 2,000 local police officers were deployed in the area during the morning. A strong United Nations International Police Task Force (UN IPTF) and the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR) presence also contributed to the security of the event.
“We will never call on revenge for what had happened here seven years ago, but we will never forget,” the Head of the Islamic Community in Bosnia, reisu-l-ulema Mustafa Ceric, told the gathered thousands.
After holding a religious service for the victims, Ceric reminded the gathering of what happened in the worst atrocity in Europe since World War Two stressing that “Srebrenica and New York cannot be forgotten.”—dpa
