SREBRENICA / AA

Amid feelings of sorrow and tears, families of the victims of the genocide committed by Serbian forces in the town of Srebrenica, eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1995, received the remains of 10 Bosniak victims at the Potočari Memorial Cemetery to bury them on the 31st anniversary of the tragedy.

The coffins of the ten victims, covered in green cloth, were carried on shoulders and taken to an old battery factory opposite the Potočari Memorial Cemetery; that site was used as a base for Dutch soldiers serving under the United Nations during the war. The coffins will remain there before being transferred on Friday to the memorial cemetery for burial after the memorial ceremony scheduled for Saturday.

The victims' families received the coffins with prayers and tears, after the convoy carrying the remains departed in the morning from the town of Visoko, then passed through the capital Sarajevo, before arriving in Potočari.

- He kissed me and left, and never returned

Speaking to journalists while touching her father Muhidin Osmanović's coffin, Mediha Džuzić expressed her inability to describe the pain she is experiencing.

Džuzić noted that she was five years old in 1995 when she saw her father for the last time before the town was occupied.

She said: "He kissed me and left, and never returned. His remains were found years ago but were incomplete, and we waited all this time to find more of his bones, and this year a few more bones were found, and now we can finally bury him."

Among the victims to be buried this year is the young man Muriz Baraković, whose wife Nizira Baraković said her husband was only 22 years old when he was killed.

Photo: Samir Jordamović/AA

Nizira noted that she waited more than 30 years for this burial.

She added: "It is very difficult, I am burying my husband, I saw him for the last time on July 11 (1995), we parted that day and never met again."

Nizira continued: "The decision to bury him was very difficult because they only found his skull, which causes a great lump in the throat, but we finally decided to bury him so that at least I know where his grave is, and I can come to recite Al-Fatiha for his soul; that is the most important thing for me."

It is noteworthy that Serbian forces under the command of Ratko Mladić entered Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, after it had been declared a safe area by the United Nations.

Over several days, Serbian forces committed a massacre that killed more than 8,000 Bosniaks aged between 7 and 70, after the Dutch forces stationed there handed over tens of thousands of Bosniaks to the Serbian forces.

Every year on July 11, Bosnia and Herzegovina holds a burial ceremony for the remains of Srebrenica massacre victims at the Potočari Cemetery, for those whose remains have been found in the search for victims of mass graves.