Private Story
Srebrenica20yearslater
On the 11 July 1995, during the bosnian war, Serbian forces killed, more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys and about 20,000 civilians were forced to flee the area. Historians say it was the worst episode of mass murder in Europe since World War II.
The massacre in Srebrenica began in Potocari, where some 25,000 Bosniak refugees had desperately gathered awaiting evacuation.
In October 2000 the land in Potoāari turned into a memorial and cemetery set up to honour the victims of the 1995 of the genocide. The site was officially opened by former US president Bill Clinton on 20 September 2003, in that year there were 600 sets of remains interred.
Every year since, as more mass graves have been exhumed and remains identified, further burials have followed and 6,200 people have now been interred. Bodies are still being recovered from mass grave sites and every year, families gather at the cemetery on 11 July to bury what remains of their loved ones.
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