Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovc said in his message on the occasion of the 26th anniversary of the Srebrenica tragedy that the insane atrocities committed in Srebrenica amounted to the defeat of humanity and that Croatians are in their thoughts with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On Sunday Plenkovic wrote on his Twitter account that today “the tribute is being paid to thousands of innocent Bosniak victims who will never be forgotten.”

The killing of more than 8,000 Bosniak civilians, men and boys in Srebrenica 26 years ago when that eastern Bosnian enclave fell into the hands of the Serb force was described by the Croatian Prime Minister as “insane crime ” which amounted to the defeat of humanity.

During this year’s commemorative events, remains of 19 Srebrenica victims will be buried in the Potocari memorial centre. The youngest victims unearthed from mass graves are Azmir Osmanovc, who was a 16-year-old boy when he was killed, and 17-year-old Fikret Kiveric. Also the remains of 24-year-old girl will be buried today.

So far, the funeral rites have been organised at the Potočari centre for 6,652 victims who were exhumed after the war from mass graves or from unmarked individual graves.

The families of another 237 victims buried their dearest ones in other cemeteries after the identification of the remains.

Also, the remains of 88 victims not yet identified are in the ossuary in Tuzla. In several cases, the agreement has not been obtained from families for burials as long as only parts of the bodies of their dearest ones are exhumed and identified. Those families wait for the discovery of all the remains of those victims.

Since early Sunday morning, hundreds of mourners started flocking Srebrenica and Potocari.

To date, 48 sentenced for Srebrenica genocide to a total of over 700 years

International courts and local courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia have to date sentenced 48 wartime officials and military and police officers of Bosnia Serb to a total of more than 700 years

Five high-profile convicts have been given life sentences for genocide and crimes against humanity committed in July 1995 in Srebrenica. The wartime political and military leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic were tried for charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Srebrenica, Prijedor, Kljuc, and other districts of Bosnia, and these two masterminds of the Srebrenica tragedy have been sentenced to life in prison by the UN tribunal ICTY.