Eight victims of Srebrenica genocide to be buried this year

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Eight victims of Srebrenica genocide will be laid to rest on July 11 in a collective burial at the Potocari Memorial, said Bosnia's Missing Persons Institute.

According to the institute, 37 more victims have been identified but the families did not approve their burial because the body remains were still incomplete.

“The families of six victims have already given their consent for the burial of their loved ones in 2021,” said the Institute.

The youngest victim to be laid to rest this year is Salko Ibisevic, who was 23 when he was killed. The oldest victim is Hasan Pezic, aged 70 at the time of death.

In April 1993, the UN had declared the besieged enclave of the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica a safe area under UN protection.

However, in July 1995, the Dutch battalion soldiers failed to prevent the town's capture by the Bosnian Serb forces and the massacre that followed.

More than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed in the UN-protected Srebrenica enclave in the days following July 11, 1995, and so far the remains of more than 6,600 have been found and buried.

To this day, 6,643 Srebrenica genocide victims were buried at the Potocari memorial and more than 1,000 are still missing.

The victims’ body remains were scattered and found at about 570 different locations.