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Euronews
4 days ago
- Politics
- Euronews
Remembering genocide in Srebrenica through the lens of Kristian Skeie
"Our memories are not very good. We forget quickly." This 11 July marks three decades since more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys from Srebrenica - a small town in eastern Bosnia - were systematically executed over the course of several days. It was the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II. For Swiss-based photographer Kristian Skeie, the anniversary is not just about remembrance — it's a reminder of the need to keep paying attention. His ongoing project, which he started 15 years ago, documents the lasting impact of the genocide: families gathering at mass graves for annual burials, children walking the same hills where their fathers were executed, survivors retracing the now-ritualised 120km march from Tuzla to Srebrenica. 'This project is all about how people find strength,' he tells Euronews Culture, 'or how people manage to pull themselves together after having experienced a genocide, and then continue their lives afterwards.' The genocide in Srebrenica, which took place in July 1995 near the end of the Bosnian War, was part of a broader campaign of ethnic cleansing carried out by Bosnian Serb forces. 'The Bosnian Serb population, led politically by Radovan Karadžić and militarily by Ratko Mladić - with support from Slobodan Milošević in Serbia - wanted to become part of a Greater Serbia,' Skeie explains. 'They were unhappy with the breakup of Yugoslavia, and what followed was a campaign to get rid of the Bosniaks entirely. In a very simplified way that's what was going on." Declared a UN safe area, Srebrenica was under the protection of Dutch UNPROFOR peacekeepers. But on 11 July, Mladić and his troops entered the town, separating men from women and children. While the latter were to be deported, the men and boys were taken to execution sites to be killed. One man featured in Skeie's project is Ramiz Nukić, a survivor of the genocide who spent years scouring the land around his home in search of bones - driven by the hope of finding his murdered relatives. 'He realised that if he had this craving to find the remains of his family members… surely others will have the same craving." By the time of his death two years ago, Nukić had located the remains of nearly 300 people. Every year on 11 July, newly identified remains are still being buried. 'These are real burials,' Skeie says. 'It's up to the families to decide if they want to bury their loved ones that year … sometimes they only have a finger, an arm." On Friday, seven victims - including two 19-year-olds - will be laid to rest in a collective funeral at the memorial centre's cemetery near Srebrenica. For Skeie, his work is not about providing easy answers. His images are meant to prompt reflection, discomfort, memory. 'This is the kind of photography that needs text as well,' he says. 'You can tell a lot with a picture, but I do not believe you can tell everything. Not this kind of photography anyway.' He adds: "I think looking at old photos that documented the war itself is incredibly valuable. But in a way, what we're doing now is also saying: we're not giving up on this. We're continuing to go back and see what's happening here. But as we're seeing elsewhere now - we can talk about Gaza, Sudan - it just keeps happening. It goes on all the time." Still, he holds onto the belief that bearing witness matters - even if change is slow. 'It's more important than ever before. But at the same time, you wonder: does it make a difference? Because it keeps happening all the time anyway. But I do choose to think that it does perhaps remind people… we gotta find better solutions. We cannot have a society like this. I have children. I don't want them to grow up like this.' Thirty years on, Bosnia remains divided along ethnic lines, while both Bosnian Serb leaders and neighbouring Serbia continue to reject the classification of the Srebrenica massacre as genocide, despite rulings from two UN courts. Serbia's President Aleksandar Vučić expressed condolences on X while calling the Srebrenica massacre a 'terrible crime.' Vučić added that 'we cannot change the past but we must change the future.' Watch the video in the web player above to hear directly from Kristian Skeie.
Euronews
4 days ago
- Politics
- Euronews
Thousands gather in Srebrenica to mark 30th anniversary of genocide
Thousands gathered in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica to mark the 30th anniversary of Europe's only recognised genocide since the Holocaust. In July 1995, more than 8,000 Bosniak boys and men were rounded up and summarily executed by Bosnian Serb forces over the course of several days after the fall of Srebrenica, which was deemed a UN safe area and meant to be under the protection of UNPROFOR international peacekeepers. Seven newly identified victims, including two 19-year-olds, will be laid to rest in a collective funeral on Friday at the large memorial cemetery in Potočari near Srebrenica, next to more than 6,000 victims already buried there. The burials are held annually for the victims who are still being unearthed from mass graves scattered across the general region of eastern Bosnia. In some cases, relatives can bury only partial remains of loved ones, found after they were relocated to secondary or tertiary mass graves, sometimes at a significant distance apart. This was the case for Mirzeta Karić, who is awaiting her father's burial. 'Thirty years of search and we are burying a bone,' Karić said, teary-eyed next to her father's coffin. 'I think it would be easier if I could bury all of him. What can I tell you, my father is one of the 50 (killed) from my entire family.' The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague (ICTY), the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and courts in Serbia have sentenced 54 people to 781 years and five life sentences for crimes committed in Srebrenica, including genocide. The wartime president of Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadžić, and the commander of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), Ratko Mladić, were among those sentenced to life sentences. Out of 20 verdicts at the ICTY, seven include verdicts for the crime of genocide. The Court of BiH has issued 33 verdicts for crimes committed in Srebrenica, of which 17, according to the court's data, were for genocide. A total of 6,765 victims have so far been buried in the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Centre, while 250 victims have been buried in local cemeteries at the request of family members. Around 1,000 more victims are still being sought. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution last year commemorating the Srebrenica genocide on the 11 July anniversary. Scores of international officials and dignitaries, including European Council President António Costa, European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos and Croatian PM Andrej Plenković, are in attendance at the commemoration ceremonies and the funeral on Friday. Furthermore, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte — whose Dutch compatriots were tasked with and failed to protect the UN safe area in Srebrenica in 1995 — addressed those gathered via a pre-recorded video message to mark "a tragedy that shocked the world and forever connected my country with yours." "I visited the memorial centre in Potočari as the Dutch prime minister and I met with some mothers of sons who will never grow old," Rutte recalled. "We will never forget the horror of those dark days and our thoughts are with all those who were affected." European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen took to her social media to mark the occasion and honour the victims, their memory and their families. 'We must remember and preserve the truth, so that future generations know exactly what happened in Srebrenica,' wrote the Commission chief in a post on X.
