The Croatian parliament on Tuesday observed a minute of silence in memory of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys killed in July 1995, when the eastern Bosnian area of Srebrenica fell into the hands of the Serb forces.

Central commemorations in tribute to victims of the Srebrenica genocide are held on 11 July.

The Croatian Parliament has commemorated one of the worst atrocities committed on European soil after World War II since 2009, when it declared 11 July Srebrenica Genocide Remembrance Day.

About 8,300 Bosniaks, mainly men and boys, were killed after Bosnian Serb forces under General Ratko Mladic overran the UN-protected enclave of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina 28 years ago. Two years ago, an appeals chamber of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague upheld the sentence of life imprisonment for Mladic.

‘Srebrenica evil must never be allowed to happen again’

“The genocide that happened in Srebrenica in July 1995 must never be forgotten, and we must never allow such evil to happen again,” said the Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, in his message. “Feeling deep respect for the victims and their families we remember the genocide in Srebrenica where over 8,000 innocent Bosniak men and boys were executed.”

The Srebrenica genocide is one of the darkest pages of European history and Europe remembers its responsibility and failure to protect the victims, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell and Commissioner for Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi said in a joint statement.