NEZUK, Bosnia and Herzegovina: Thousands of people began marching on Monday toward Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia to mark the anniversary of the 1995 genocide, the worst massacre in Europe since World War II.
The annual march covers a 100-kilometer (62-mile) route to Srebrenica from the village of Nezuk, where the first survivors arrived.
Bosnian Serb forces captured Srebrenica — a UN protected enclave at the time — on July 11, 1995, and killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys.
The atrocity was deemed genocide by two international courts.
Fatima Ibrahimbegovic Alic told AFP her father, Ramiz, was killed trying to escape.
“I go for him, for all of them, to walk this path where they suffered,” she said.
“We need to keep doing this so we never forget.”
Carrying Bosnian, Palestinian and Turkish flags, the marchers will stop at the sites of dozens of mass graves where the remains of victims were found.
“We are here so that Srebrenica never happens again, anywhere ... that everyone knows” about the crime, said Azra Barakovac, a woman who arrived from Sarajevo to march for the first time.
Marcher Resid Dervisevic is one of the rare massacre survivors. In July 1995, he and his eight male relatives fled Srebrenica, running through the woods. His brother, an uncle and six nephews were killed during the escape.
Returning to the scene “brings back emotions, even in the days before this march,” the 64-year-old said holding back tears.
But it is easier to do it now than in 1995 “under a rain of bullets and shells — hungry, barefoot, without sleep for days,” he added.
“I walked for seven days through the forest. I survived on 250 grams of sugar.
“And when we arrived here, on this territory, people welcomed us by giving us everything they had to eat and drink.”
In late May, the United Nations General Assembly established an annual day of remembrance for the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.
The move drew fierce opposition from the Serbian government and Bosnian Serb leaders, who play down the atrocity and refuse to accept it as a genocide.
“We want to dedicate this march to all the people who did not manage to save themselves and who were killed in the Srebrenica genocide,” Ela Rehic, 14, who joined the march with her mother, said.
“It will certainly be difficult to march for three days, but I want to see and experience a bit of what I learned about their flight from Srebrenica.”
Tofik Sejdic, like Rehic, was born after 1995 and said he felt very emotional.
“It’s important not to forget what happened in those years in our country, especially in Srebrenica.
“For our people, for me, Srebrenica is sacred,” the 24-year-old man said.
In late May, the United Nations General Assembly established an annual day of remembrance for the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.
The move drew fierce opposition from the Serbian government and Bosnian Serb leaders, who play down the atrocity and refuse to call it a genocide.
The marchers will reach the memorial center in Potocari, where nearly 7,000 massacre victims were buried, on Wednesday.
They will attend a ceremony to mark the atrocity’s 29th anniversary the next day.
Bosnia’s war 1992-1995 between its Croats, Muslims and Serbs claimed approximately 100,000 lives.
Nearly three decades since the war ended, the Balkan nation remains deeply divided along ethnic lines.
Thousands march to mark Srebrenica genocide anniversary
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Thousands march to mark Srebrenica genocide anniversary
- Annual march covers a 100-kilometer (62-mile) route to Srebrenica from the village of Nezuk, where the first survivors arrived
- Bosnian Serb forces captured Srebrenica — a UN protected enclave at the time — on July 11, 1995, and killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys
With Iran war exit elusive, Trump aides vie to affect outcome
- Aides debate when and how to declare victory even as the conflict spreads across the Middle East
- In taking America to war, US President Donald Trump offered little explanation
WASHINGTON: A complex tug-of-war inside the White House is driving US President Donald Trump’s shifting public statements on the course of the Iran war, as aides debate when and how to declare victory even as the conflict spreads across the Middle East.
Some officials and advisers are warning Trump that surging gasoline prices could exact a political cost from the US-Israeli attacks on Iran, while some hawks are pressing the president to maintain the offensive against the Islamic Republic, according to interviews with a Trump adviser and others close to the deliberations.
Their observations to Reuters offer a previously unreported glimpse inside White House decision-making as it adjusts its approach to the biggest US military operation since the 2003 Iraq war.
Shifting messages, various internal viewpoints
The behind-the-scenes maneuvering underscores the high stakes Trump, who returned to office last year promising to avoid “stupid” military interventions, faces nearly two weeks after plunging the nation into a war that has rattled global financial markets and disrupted the international oil trade.
The jockeying for Trump’s ear is a feature of his presidency, but this time the consequences are a matter of war and peace in one of the world’s most volatile and economically critical regions.
Shifting from the sweeping goals he framed in launching the war on February 28, Trump in recent days has emphasized that he views the conflict as a limited campaign whose objectives have mostly been met.
But the message remains unclear to many, including the energy markets, which have lurched in both directions in response to Trump’s statements.
He told a campaign-style rally in Kentucky on Wednesday that “we won” the war, then abruptly pivoted: “We don’t want to leave early, do we? We’ve got to finish the job.”
Economic advisers and officials, including from the Treasury Department and the National Economic Council, have warned Trump that an oil shock and rising gasoline prices could quickly erode domestic support for the war, said the adviser and two others close to the deliberations, speaking on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal discussions.
Political advisers, including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and deputy chief James Blair, are making similar arguments, focusing on the political fallout from higher gas prices and urging Trump to define victory narrowly and signal the operation is limited and nearly finished, the sources said.
Pushing in the other direction are hawkish voices urging Trump to sustain military pressure on Iran, including Republican lawmakers such as US Senators Lindsey Graham and Tom Cotton, and media commentators such as Mark Levin, according to people familiar with the matter.
They argue the US must prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and respond forcefully to attacks on American troops and shipping.
A third force comes from Trump’s populist base and figures such as strategist Steve Bannon and right-wing television personality Tucker Carlson, who have been pressing him and his top aides to avoid getting dragged into another prolonged Middle East conflict.
“He is allowing the hawks to believe the campaign continues, wants markets to believe the war might end soon and his base to believe escalation will be limited,” the Trump adviser said.
Asked for comment, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement: “This story is based on gossip and speculation from anonymous sources who aren’t even in the room for any discussions with President Trump.
“The President is known for being a good listener and seeking the opinions of many people, but ultimately everyone knows he’s the final decision maker and his own best messenger,” she said. “The President’s entire team is focused on ensuring the objectives of Operation Epic Fury are fully achieved.”
Other people named for their roles in the deliberations did not immediately respond to Reuters’ questions.
Looking for an exit
In taking America to war, Trump offered little explanation, and the administration’s stated war aims have ranged from thwarting an imminent attack by Iran to crippling its nuclear program to replacing its government.
As he seeks an exit from an unpopular conflict, Trump is trying to juggle competing narratives that some critics say have complicated an already difficult situation, with Iran defiant despite the devastating US-Israeli air assault.
Top political aides and economic advisers, whose warnings before the war of the potential economic shock were largely ignored, appear to have played a major role in pushing Trump’s efforts this week to reassure skittish markets and contain rising oil and gas prices.
His public shift to downplaying the war’s impact, describing it as a “short-term excursion,” and his insistence that gas price hikes would be short-lived appeared aimed at calming fears of an open-ended conflict.
Some top aides have advised him to work toward a conclusion to the conflict that he can call a triumph, at least militarily, the sources said, even if much of the Iranian leadership survives, along with remnants of a nuclear program that the campaign was meant to target.
Wave after wave of US and Israeli air strikes have killed a number of top Iranian leaders among some 2,000 people overall – some as far away as Lebanon – devastated its ballistic missile arsenal, sunk much of its navy and degraded its ability to support armed proxies around the Middle East.
But the military achievements have been seriously undercut by Iran’s stepped-up attacks on oil tankers and transport facilities in the Gulf, driving up oil prices.
Trump has said he will decide when to end the campaign. He and his aides say they are far ahead of the four- to six-week timeframe Trump initially announced.
The shifting reasons for launching the conflict, which has spilled over into more than half a dozen other countries, have only made it more difficult to predict what comes next.
For their part, Iran’s rulers will claim victory, analysts say, for simply surviving the US-Israeli onslaught, especially after demonstrating their ability to fight back and inflict damage on Israel, the US and its allies.
Venezuela miscalculation
Critical to the war’s final trajectory will be the Strait of Hormuz. A fifth of the world’s oil shipments, which normally traverses the narrow waterway, has come to a near-standstill. Iran in recent days has struck tankers in Iraqi waters and other ships near the strait, and the new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has vowed to keep it shut.
If Iran’s stranglehold on the waterway pushes US gas prices high enough, that could increase political pressure on Trump to end the military campaign to help his Republican Party, which is defending narrow majorities in Congress in November’s midterm elections.
Trump has recently refrained from pushing the idea that the war seeks to topple the government in Tehran. US intelligence indicates that Iran’s leadership is not at risk of collapse anytime soon, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
At least some of the confusion over the war’s trajectory appears rooted in the quick US military success in Venezuela.
Since the start of the war, some aides have struggled to convince Trump that the Iran campaign was unlikely to unfold in the same way as the January 3 Venezuela raid that captured President Nicolas Maduro, according to another source familiar with the administration’s thinking.
That operation opened the way for Trump to coerce former Maduro loyalists into giving him considerable sway over the country’s vast oil reserves – without requiring extended US military action.
Iran, by contrast, has proved a much tougher, better-armed foe with an entrenched clerical and security establishment.
Experts have rejected claims by Trump aides that Iran had been within weeks of being able to produce a nuclear weapon, despite the president’s insistence in June that US-Israeli bombing had “obliterated” its nuclear program.
Most of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is believed to have been buried by the June strikes, meaning the material potentially could be retrieved and purified to bomb grade. Iran has always denied seeking nuclear weapons.
If the war drags on, American casualties mount and the economic costs multiply, some analysts say it could erode backing from Trump’s political base. But despite criticism from some supporters opposed to military interventions, members of his “Make America Great Again” movement have so far largely stayed with him on Iran.
“The MAGA base is going to give the president wiggle room,” said Republican strategist Ford O’Connell.
