Commemoration of Srebrenica massacre to be held on July 11

June 22, 2005

Commemoration of the Srebrenica massacre will be held on July 11, when newly identified bodies will be buried. In 1995, Serbian forces, according to International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), massacred around 7500 Bosnian Muslims.

A controversy arose after mothers of murdered Muslims in Srebrenica made a statement saying that the Serbian President, Boris Tadić, is not welcome in Srebrenica: "Tadić coming to Srebrenica is a planned provocation of the ones who will bury their families on July 11." The Serbian President will still attend the ceremony.

Abdurahman Malkić, the president of the Srebrenica municipality, guaranteed safety to Tadić and all other officials. Other attendees include Theodor Meron, the president of ICTY.

So far, 2,032 bodies have been identified. It is expected that by July 11 another 550 bodies will be identified and ready for burial.

Reactions in Serbia
Recent showing of a video which depicts six Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica being killed by Serbian forces has steered a lot of controversy in Serbia. Bojan Pajtić, the president of the executive board of the northern Serbian province, Vojvodina, agreed to officially support an initiative of the Independent Journalists' Association of Vojvodina to declare July 11th a Memorial Day in Serbia and Montenegro.

An agency for marketing research, Faktor Plus, published a study on Serbian citizens' reaction on the video. 30.2% of subjects said that they feel sorrow for victims. 43.2% feel anger towards executors of the massacre. 16.3% felt guilt, while one percent was "satisfied" with the video.

External link

 * Faktor Plus