Bosnian Genocide

From January to the end of June this year, the Bosnian state prosecution has only charged two people with wartime crimes, BIRN has learned, despite a huge backlog of unprosecuted cases related to the 1992-95 conflict in the country.

Activists from the Youth Initiative for Human Rights and other anti-war groups gathered in front of the Serbian presidency building on Sunday evening to light candles to commemorate victims of the genocide of Bosniaks from Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995.

The activists also held up a banner with the slogan "It shouldn't happen to anyone again".

The Turkish president on July 11 commemorated the 26th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, voicing his sorrow and sympathy to the victims.

In a video message at the memorial ceremony to mark the massacre's anniversary in Bosnia, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey will continue to stand with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bosnians.

The decision by the UN court in The Hague last month to uphold the life sentence handed down to former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic takes the number of life terms imposed for involvement in the Srebrenica genocide to five.

Kosovo MPs adopted a resolution on Wednesday officially recognising the 1995 Srebrenica massacre as genocide, only days before the 26th commemoration of the slaughter of Bosniaks by Bosnian Serb forces.

89 deputies voted for the adoption of the resolution, no one was against or abstained, reports the Pristina Reporters.
At the moment when the President of the Assembly, Glauk Konjufca, announced a point on the Draft Resolution on the committed genocide in Srebrenica, the deputies of the Serbian List and Minister Goran Raki left the session.

Nikolic had a conversation with representatives of the Serb-run Bratunac municipality and the local police, and it was agreed to contact state-owned companies and ask them to provide the heavy machinery required.

The Bosnian state court on Monday convicted Bozidar Perisic of shooting two Bosniak men dead in the village of Gracanica, near Rogatica, on June 19, 1992.

The bodies of victims Salem and Mustafa Sijercic were later burned by unknown members of the Bosnian Serb Army, and have still not been found.

The verdict in their trial will be announced at the UN court in The Hague on Wednesday.

Bosnia's top court has rejected an appeal filed by Zoran Babic in September 2019 with the Constitutional Court against a verdict passed down in May that year in which he said his right to a fair defence had been violated.

Under the verdict, the Appeals Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced him to 13 years in prison for a "crime against humanity".