SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina: Thousands of mourners gathered in Bosnia on Thursday to commemorate the 24th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, the worst mass killing in Europe since World War II.
Relatives of the more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys killed by Bosnian Serb troops were among those attending a ceremony at a memorial site that included the burial of 33 newly identified victims of the July 11-22, 1995 massacre.
More than 1,000 are still considered missing from the mass slaughter during the Bosnian civil war.
Many victims were ambushed along forest routes while fleeing Srebrenica in scorching heat without food or water. They were either shot on the spot, or taken to collective centers where they were executed and thrown into mass graves
Mevlid Halilovic, a relative of a victim, said many of the people who carried out the massacre were still at large.
"Those who did this (killing) have to be punished," he said. "And it was all done by our (Serb) neighbors, those who live just around here."
Nura Begovic was burying the remains of her brother, who was identified through his hand bone.
"I spent 24 years looking for his body and I only found one bone," she said. "But today, both I and my family have found peace."
Both Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and military commander Ratko Mladic, who led troops that captured Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, were sentenced by a UN war crimes court to life in prison.
Although the mass killings were branded genocide by international courts, Serbian and Bosnia Serb officials refuse to use the term. They did not send official delegations to the commemoration on Thursday.
A joint statement issued by European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn described the "genocide" in Srebrenica as "one of the darkest moments of humanity in modern European history."
"There is no place for inflammatory rhetoric, for denial, revisionism or the glorification of war criminals," the statement said. "Attempts to rewrite history in Bosnia and Herzegovina or anywhere are unacceptable."
Bosnian Muslims mark 1995 massacre of thousands with burials
Bosnian Muslims mark 1995 massacre of thousands with burials
- Most of the victims’ remains have been found in mass graves near Srebrenica, but more than 1,000 are still considered missing
- Mevlid Halilovic, a relative of a victim, said many of those who took part in the massacre are still at large and “live just around here”
US again warns air traffic over military activity around Venezuela
- The new warning came days after a pilot for JetBlue said his aircraft came close to colliding with a US Air Force refueling plane near Venezuela
WASHINGTON: The US aviation regulator issued a renewed warning on Tuesday to civilian aircraft operating in Venezuelan airspace, citing the dangers of military activity.
The Federal Aviation Administration urged aircraft to “exercise caution” due to the “worsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around Venezuela” — the same wording used in a previous warning issued last month.
The new warning came days after a pilot for JetBlue said his aircraft came close to colliding with a US Air Force refueling plane near Venezuela — an incident the airline said it had reported to American authorities.
The United States has amassed a huge flotilla of warships in the Caribbean and has repeatedly flown military aircraft along Venezuela’s coast as Washington seeks to pressure leftist leader Nicolas Maduro to leave power.
Washington accuses Maduro of leading the alleged “Cartel of the Suns,” which it declared a “narco-terrorist” organization last month, and has offered a $50 million reward for information leading to his capture.
US forces have also carried out a series of strikes targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific — a months-long campaign that has left at least 95 people dead and sent regional tensions soaring.
