Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 12 July 2017
Bosnia: thousands mark 22 years since Srebrenica massacre

By SABINA NIKSIC Srebrenica was overrun by Serbs hastily disposed of sites around the town. ers, because all male mem-
Associated Press Bosnian Serb forces on July the victims’ bodies in sev- Every year forensic experts bers of the victims’ families
SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Her- 11, 1995. It is the only epi- eral large pits, then dug identify newly found re- had often been killed.
zegovina (AP) — Tens of “I was looking for him for
thousands of people con- 20 years...they found him in
verged on Srebrenica a garbage dump last De-
Tuesday for a funeral for cember,” Emina Salkic said
dozens of newly identified through tears, hugging the
victims of the 1995 massa- coffin of her brother Munib.
cre in the Bosnian town. He was 16 when he was
Remains of 71 Muslim Bos- killed.
niak victims, including Srebrenica was besieged
seven juvenile boys and by Serb forces for years be-
a woman, were buried at fore it fell. It was declared
the memorial cemetery on a U.N. “safe haven” for
the 22nd anniversary of the civilians in 1993, but a Se-
crime. They were laid to curity Council mission that
rest next to over 6,000 oth- visited shortly afterward
er Srebrenica victims found described the town as “an
previously in mass graves. open jail” where a “slow-
The youngest victim buried motion process of geno-
this year was 15, the oldest cide” was in effect.
was 72. When Serb forces led by
Adela Efendic came to Gen. Ratko Mladic broke
Srebrenica to bury the re- through two years later,
mains of her father, Senaid. Srebrenica’s terrified Mus-
“I was 20-day-old baby lim Bosniak population
when he was killed. I have A Bosnian Muslim woman cries near the coffin of her relative during a funeral ceremony for the 71 rushed to the U.N. com-
victims at the memorial center of Potocari near Srebrenica, north east of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Tues-
no words to explain how it day, July 11, 2017. Twenty two years ago, on July 11, 1995, Serb troops overran the eastern Bos- pound hoping that Dutch
feels to bury the father you nian Muslim enclave of Srebrenica and executed some 8,000 Muslim people, which International U.N. peacekeepers would
have never met,” Efendic courts have labeled as an act of genocide. protect them. But the
said. “You imagine what (AP Photo/Amel Emric) outgunned peacekeep-
kind of a person he might ers watched helplessly as
have been, but that is all Mladic’s troops separated
you have.” sode of Bosnia’s fratricidal them up again and scat- mains through DNA analy- out men and boys for ex-
More than 8,000 Bosniak 1992-95 war to be defined tered the remains over the sis before reburial. ecution and sent the wom-
men and boys perished in as genocide by two U.N. nearly 100 smaller mass Most coffins are lowered en and girls to Bosnian gov-
10 days of slaughter after courts. graves and hidden burial into their graves by strang- ernment-held territory. q
India:

Police warned of attack on Hindus in Kashmir

By AIJAZ HUSSAIN to 150 yatris (pilgrims) and been increased along the
Associated Press about 100 police.” route for the pilgrimage,
SRINAGAR, India (AP) — It described circumstances the thousands of deployed
As India’s government on eerily similar to what trans- soldiers and police do not
Tuesday blamed sepa- pired Monday night: “The patrol overnight.
ratist rebels for gunning attack may be in the form Several bus passengers
down seven Hindu pilgrims of standoff fire on yatra (pil- who were wounded gave
and wounding 19 more in grimage) convoy, which a different version of
Kashmir before fleeing into they (militants) believe will events, saying the bus had
the night, rebel groups in result in flaring of commu- been targeted from three
the disputed region con- nal tensions throughout the directions during the at-
demned the rare, deadly nation.” Police said the at- tack. They said the driver
attack on civilians and in- tack began with gunmen kept driving the bus as it
sisted they had no part in it. unleashing a hail of bul- was being struck with bul-
A memo that was circulat- lets on an armored police lets near the southern town
ed to regional police, mili- vehicle and, soon after, of Anantnag on the main
tary and paramilitary units on a nearby police patrol. highway linking Kashmir
two weeks ago indicates They said that a bus carry- with the rest of India.
Indian security officials had ing 60 Hindu pilgrims had The annual summer pilgrim-
been expecting an attack. been passing through the age to the Amarnath cave
The memo, marked “top se- area when the patrolling shrine, which began June
cret,” warned that a “sen- police and militants were 29 under heavy security,
sational attack by terrorist exchanging fire, and that has been targeted in the
outfits cannot be ruled out” some bullets struck the bus past. Opponents of Indi-
in the mostly Muslim region. and its passengers. an rule in Kashmir accuse
The memo, dated June 25 The police also said that the Hindu-majority India of us-
and verified as authentic bus had been traveling at ing the pilgrimage as a po-
by The Associated Press, night, despite instructions litical statement to bolster
said “terrorists have been to avoid the roads after its claim to the disputed
directed to eliminate 100 dark. Though security had region.q