The delegation of Mothers of Srebrenica and the Association of Witnesses of Genocide in Bosnia met, on Tuesday, in New York with the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
During the meeting, Guterres noted that nothing would change regarding the verdicts of international courts in The Hague.
Bosnia went through a bloody war which lasted from 1992 to 1995. On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces overran the eastern Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica and rounded up the town’s Muslim Bosniaks, separated men from women and little children and systematically executed some 8,000 men and boys.
The bodies of the victims were dumped into numerous mass graves in the area. Forensic experts excavate them and identify the bones through DNA analysis before returning the bodies to the families every year. They rebury them yearly on July 11 at the Potocari Memorial Centre’s cemetery.
Two international courts, The International Criminal Tribunal (ICTY) for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) later ruled that the massacre was an act of genocide.
Guterres also offered his full support to Mothers of Srebrenica, promising he would visit the Memorial Centre on the 25th anniversary of the genocide.
The Bosnian delegation plans to meet with UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten and UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Nicolas Gerard.
