Bosnia Marks Srebrenica Genocide Anniversary as More Victims Buried

Prayers were said and mourners shed tears as 33 more victims Srebrenica massacres - defined as genocide by international courts - were laid to rest at a ceremony at the Potocari Memorial Centre during the annual commemoration on Thursday.

The youngest victim buried this year was Osman Cvrk, who was 16 when he was killed - one of around 8,000 Bosniaks who died in a series of mass killings after the UN-protected 'safe area' of Srebrenica fell to Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995.

The oldest victim, Saha Cvrk, who was 82, was buried together with her son Resid.

None of the bodies that were laid to rest this year were complete. In some cases, only a few bones were buried. Bodies were sometimes broken up after they were initially buried in mass graves in attempts to cover up the killings.

Nedzad Avdic, who survived one of the massacres in Petkovci at the age of 17, said at the commemoration that he was a split second away from death in July 1995.

"I was a mistake made by Bosnian Serb Army soldiers. When they checked if they had killed everyone, they missed me," Avdic recalled.

The Bosniak member of the country's tripartite state presidency, Sefik Dzaferovic, said the only reason the victims were killed was because they were Bosniaks.

"Their aim was to destroy an entire people. The crime happened in front of the eyes of the whole world. The UN did not prevent, when it could have, the gravest crime in modern Europe," Dzaferovic said.

He also appealed to Bosnian Serbs who might know the locations of more hidden mass graves to come forward. Some 1,000 Srebrenica victims have yet to be found.

"I am sending an appeal to our neighbours. Reveal the sites of mass graves. Help the victims' families and at least partially...

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