Croatian top officials honoured on Sunday the Srebrenica genocide victims, with President Zoran Milanovic saying that the attempts to downplay or deny that tragedy have made the suffering of thousands of families of victims even deeper.

On the occasion of the 26th anniversary of the fall of the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica into the hands of the Serb forces who killed over 8,000 local Bosniaks when they raided the area, the Croatian president extended once again the heartfelt sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims.

Milanovic recalled that the genocide committed by the Serb army in mid-July 1995 was the most horrendous crime on the European continent since the end of the Second World War.

It is the permanent duty of all states and of the whole international community to keep memories of the Srebrenica tragedy victims alive, he underscored, describing the Srebrenica genocide as “brutal and incomprehensible twilight of the civilisation.”

He pointed to many attempts being made for decades to deny or downplay that genocide and said that they aggravated the position of the families of the victims of that “horrendous atrocity”.

The future and cooperation between the peoples in the region could not be built without the sincere attitude towards the past, which also included the acceptance of painful facts about the war crimes committed in Srebrenica.

The president called for bringing to account all those responsible for this atrocity as a precondition for turning a new page in the relations and in launching cooperation based on European values.

It is the duty of all of us to make efforts on a daily basis to prevent such tragedy from recurring, he said, among other things.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said in his message on this occasion that the insane atrocities committed in Srebrenica amounted to the defeat of humanity and that Croatians are in their thoughts with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On Sunday Plenkovic wrote on his Twitter account that today “the tribute is being paid to thousands of innocent Bosniak victims who will never be forgotten.”

The killing of more than 8,000 Bosniak civilians, men and boys in Srebrenica 26 years ago when that eastern Bosnian enclave fell into the hands of the Serb force was described by the Croatian Prime Minister as “insane crime” which amounted to the defeat of humanity.