It is our human duty and a civilisational act to pay our homage to the innocent victims of the Srebrenica genocide and as faithful we must pray for the salvation of their souls, Bosnian Archbishop said on Friday on the occasion of the Srebrenica genocide anniversary, July 11, when the remains of 19 more victims will be buried.

“Another sad anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica is approaching when we mention so many innocent victims in our thoughts and prayers. The events that took place 26 years ago strongly remind us how evil and hatred can be: blinding, destructive and fratricidal, and how great the consequences can be felt if people allow their hearts to be poisoned with selfishness, arrogance and intolerance of others.

It is our human duty and an act of civilization to pay homage to the innocent victims, and to pray as faithful for the salvation of their souls. A crime is always a crime and it knows neither religion nor nation and every mother’s tears for her child is equally painful. But history teaches us that evil is not defeated by new violence or revenge but only by repentance, dialogue and forgiveness.

Therefore, I first ask the Almighty God to give consolation to all who carry the wounds of losing their loved ones, so that they never fall into the trap of revenge but overcome the power of hatred that fell on them 26 years ago with love and memory of their victims. Also, in my prayers, I mention those who have done the evil: to see their crimes, to repent of them, and to know where the bones of those whose families are still searching rest; and to be influenced by God’s mercy so that nothing similar would ever happen to anyone in the future.

Truth and justice are the foundation of reconciliation and coexistence. Therefore, for the umpteenth time, I call on the most responsible individuals of our society to contribute with their words and deeds to building mutual trust. Let this and similar commemorations not be used to unnecessarily raise tensions, collect political points and spread feelings of insecurity, but let us all pay tribute to the innocent victims, support their families and relatives and learn lessons for coexistence in our homeland Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Archbishop Vinko Puljic wrote in his statement.

During the 1992-1995 Bosnian war for independence from the former Yugoslavia, the country lost over 100,000 people, over 8,000 of which were lost in July 1995 in Srebrenica, when Bosnian Serb forces, which received financial and logistical support both from Serbian authorities and individuals during the war, overrun the then UN-protected zone of Srebrenica.
Their bodies were subsequently buried in primary, secondary and even tertiary mass graves in an attempt to hide the crimes and make identification of victims impossible. Thanks to state of the art DNA labs, all the bodies that were buried at the Memorial Centre were positively identified.

The bodies of victims that were not identified are still held in morgues waiting for their relatives to give their DNA samples. Unfortunately, many have died before their loved ones were exhumated making it impossible to identify a small number of skeletal remains.

The International Criminal Tribunal (ICTY) for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice later ruled that the massacre was an act of genocide.

International and regional courts have sentenced 45 people for what happened in Srebrenica to a total of more than 700 years behind bars.