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Twenty years on, Srebenica massacre weighs on int'l community's conscience: UN chief

Xinhua, July 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

The international community must continue to remember and learn lessons from the horrors of Srebrenica so as to prevent such killings from happening again, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and representatives from a number of countries said at a special commemorative event held here Wednesday.

The Srebrenica massacre occurred when the Army of Republika Srpska killed more than 8,000 people, mostly men and boys, in the town of Srebrenica, Bosnia, over two nights beginning on July 11 1995. The massacre is considered the worst crime committed on European soil since the end of World War II.

"The atrocious murder of Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica will forever weigh on the collective conscience of the international community," Ban said.

The massacre has weighed particularly heavily on the United Nations conscience because UN Peacekeepers had designated the town of Srebrenica as a "safe area" before the massacre occurred.

"The United Nations, which was founded to prevent such crimes from recurring, failed in its responsibilities to protect the lives of innocent civilians seeking protection from the conflict and violence around them," the secretary-general said.

This sentiment was echoed by Matthew Rycroft, the permanent representaive of the United Kingdom to the United Nations.

"Our collective failure to protect a UN designated safe area still haunts this organization," Rycroft said.

Samantha Power, the United States ambassador to the UN who was herself a foreign correspondent covering the war in Bosnia, described the systematic killings in Srebrenica led by Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic.

"The only people who survived these systematic mass executions were those who were machine gunned but hid under the lifeless bodies of their neighbors, family members, and friends," Power said.

Power said Srebrenica prompted a reexamination of "the entire peacekeeping system that could have allowed such a horror to occur under the very nose of the United Nations."

Since the outbreak of the tragedy in Srebrenica, UN peacekeepers now consistently have "authorization to use all necessary means to protect civilians," said Ban, who admitted the international community is still failing too many people. "From Syria to South Sudan, people face unspeakable violence and terror. " Endite