Tens of Thousands Mark 20 Years since Srebrenica Massacre

9 July: Bosnian Serbs step up shelling; thousands of Bosnian Muslim refugees flee to Srebrenica.

Vucic returned to Belgrade where media had reported he was injured in the incident, but he told reporters that although a stone hit him in the mouth he was not hurt, while his eyeglasses fell and broke.

Shortly before arriving, he condemned the “monstrous crime” in nearby Srebrenica, where some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered by Bosnian Serb forces. Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic enters Srebrenica and delivers ultimatum that Muslims must hand over weapons.

The men and boys were led away by armed escorts before being lined up and shot nearby.

Buried in mass graves, and scattered about the countryside, many remain missing 20 years later. So far, 6974 victims of the massacre have been named, including 136 as the ceremony began.

Fourteen individuals have been convicted at the UN’s worldwide Criminal Tribunal for the ex- Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague in relation to the Srebrenica killings.

Under the shadow of that tragedy, the commemoration was as tense as it was sorrowful.

Bosnia and Serbia established diplomatic ties in 2000, but the first signs of improved relations were not seen until a decade after the war. I am happy this was not organised by families of the victims, that this was not organised by those who really lost someone.

“Serbia clearly and unambiguously condemns this terrible crime and is disgusted with all those who took part in it and will continue to bring them to justice”, he said in a public letter.

On this most sensitive of subjects, Vucic chose his words with the utmost care.

“Look at those thousands of tombstones: is he not ashamed to say that this was not genocide?” said Hamida Dzanovic, whose husband was among those killed.

Begajeta Salihovic came to bury her father, whose remains were found in two such sites.

Grief turned to anger at a ceremony to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica slaughter today when the Serbian prime minister attended to pay his respects. The Serbian interior minister, Nebojsa Stefanovic, described the attack as an “assassination attempt”.

So the ceremony focused on remembrance, rather than reconciliation.

Subasic said she was “terribly disappointed” by the scenes.

The 1992-95 war in Bosnia, pitting Christian Orthodox Serbs against Bosnian Muslims and Croatian Catholics, left more than 100,000 people dead and millions homeless.

Some tried to physically assault him.

Aleksandar Vucic, a ex- ultranationalist during the Balkan wars but who is now a moderate with a pro-Western stance, escaped serious injury.

The European Parliament and US House of Representatives recognised the massacre as genocide following the Russian veto as Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and the queen of Jordan repeated the term in speeches.

Clinton said before the attack: “I want to thank the prime minister of Serbia for having the courage to come here today and I think it is important that we acknowledge that”.

What made Srebrenica’s ordeal all the more painful was that outside powers had declared the town a haven at the time.

A woman mourns among graves in Memorial Center Potocari, near Srebenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina on Saturday.