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A30 world news
Dialuna 12 Juli 2021

Bosnia commemorates 26th anniversary of Srebrenica massacre

were both convicted of geno-
cide in Srebrenica by a special
U.N. war crimes tribunal in
The Hague. In all, the tribu-
nal and courts in the Balkans
have sentenced close to 50
Bosnian Serb wartime offi-
cials to more than 700 years
in prison for the Srebrenica
killings.

However, most Serbian and
Bosnian Serbs officials still
celebrate Karadzic and Mlad-
ic as national heroes. In fact,
Bosnian Serb political leaders
have consistently prevented
(AP) — Nineteen newly ambitions that set Bosnian stemming from the breakup Suhra Salihovic attended the the country from adopting a
identified victims were Serbs against the country’s of Yugoslavia. collective funeral to bury her law that would ban genocide
honored and buried Sun- two other main ethnic fac- niece, Zilha Delic, who was denial, as well as one declar-
day in Bosnia as thousands tions — Croats and Bosniaks. “The denial of crimes still 24 when she and her husband ing July 11 a national day of
gathered to commemo- shocks me to my core.” he were killed in July 1995 while mourning.
rate the 1995 Srebrenica The massacre has been de- added. “It is a repudiation of trying to flee Srebrenica on
massacre, Europe’s only clared a genocide by inter- the lived experiences of the foot after the U.N.-protected On the eve of the 26th mas-
acknowledged genocide national and national courts, victims as well as the facts re- enclave was overrun by Bos- sacre anniversary, the Serb
since World War II. but Serb leaders in Bosnia peatedly established by inter- nian Serb forces. member of Bosnia’s presi-
and neighboring Serbia con- national tribunals.” dency, Milorad Dodik, once
The slaughter of more than tinue to downplay or even “Her mother died last year. again denied that what hap-
8,000 Muslim Bosniaks, deny it despite the irrefutable Agius and other regional and She did not live long enough pened in Srebrenica in 1995
most of them men and boys, evidence of what happened. international officials ad- to see her get a proper buri- was a genocide, telling a local
by Bosnian Serb forces was dressed, through video mes- al,” Salihovic said. newspaper that the mourners
commemorated in speeches, “Sadly, for more than two de- sages, the survivors and oth- are “burying empty coffins.”
prayers and song, followed by cades now, denying the geno- ers gathered in Srebrenica. “It is impossible to explain
the reburial of victims whose cide in Srebrenica has been how much pain we carry ... The statement was consid-
remains were found in mass a go-to tool for making sure Twenty six years after they my two sons and husband ered particularly vile because
graves and recently identified that the people (of Bosnia) were brutally murdered, 16 and almost all of my other families of the massacre vic-
through DNA analysis. are kept divided between us men, two teenage boys and a (male) relatives were also tims were burying just a
and them. This is precisely woman were laid to rest at a killed” in the massacre, she handful of bones, as the re-
The Srebrenica killings were the division that has brought memorial cemetery at the en- added. mains of their loved ones are
the bloody crescendo of the so much suffering to so many trance to Srebrenica, joining typically found scattered over
1992-95 war in Bosnia, which lives” in the 1990s, said Judge more than 6,600 other mas- The Bosnian Serb wartime several different mass graves,
came after the break-up of Carmel Agius, president of sacre victims already reburied political leader Radovan sometimes miles apart, since
Yugoslavia unleashed nation- the U.N. court that is com- there. Karadzic and his military Bosnian Serb forces tried to
alistic passions and territorial pleting war crimes trials commander Ratko Mladic cover-up their crimes.

Protests erupt in Georgia after beaten journalist dies

(AP) — Several thousand nents of the march blocked ria, was beaten by a mob of Thursday. President Salome Zurabish-
people protested in front off the capital’s main avenue, 20 people. Local TV channels vili both described as “a trag-
of the Georgian parlia- denounced journalists cover- later showed him with bruis- The cause of his death was edy.”
ment on Sunday evening, ing the protest as pro-LGBT es on his face and blood on not immediately clear.
demanding that the ex- propagandists and threw the floor around him. Me- Animosity against sexual mi-
Soviet nation’s prime sticks and bottles at them. dia reports say he sustained Police launched an investiga- norities is strong in the con-
minister resign over the multiple injuries and had to tion into Lashkarava’s death, servative Black Sea nation of
death of a journalist who Lashkarava, according to his undergo surgery but was dis- which Georgia’s Prime Min- Georgia.
was attacked and beaten colleague Miranda Baghatu- charged from a hospital on ister Irakli Garibashvili and
by anti-LGBT protesters. The Tbilisi Pride group said
Monday that opponents of
Cameraman Alexander Lash- the planned march were sup-
karava was found dead in his ported by the government
home by his mother earlier and by the Georgian Ortho-
Sunday, according to the TV dox Church. The Open Cau-
Pirveli channel he worked casus Media group published
for. Lashkarava was one of a photo of a man it said was
several dozen journalists at- a local TV journalist being
tacked last Monday by oppo- pulled away from the scene
nents of an LGBT march that in a headlock by an Orthodox
had been scheduled to take priest.
place that day in the Georgian
capital of Tbilisi. Zurabishvili condemned the
violence, but Garibashvili
Organizers of the Tbilisi alleged the march was orga-
March For Dignity cancelled nized by “radical opposition”
the event, saying authorities forces that he claimed were
had not provided adequate led by exiled former Presi-
security guarantees. Oppo- dent Mikheil Saakashvili.