Bosnians on Wednesday buried 520 victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, with the two alleged masterminds of the slaughter finally on trial for genocide.
About 30,000 people were gathered at a special memorial centre in Potocari, just outside Srebrenica, for the mass funeral on the 17th anniversary of the worst atrocity on European soil since the Second World War.
After speeches and the Muslim prayer for the dead, people began hoisting the simple coffins covered in green cloth to carry them to the freshly dug graves. Clouds of red dust rose over the vast cemetery as relatives covered the caskets with earth under the sweltering afternoon sun.
“It is the pain, an endless pain, and when July 11 arrives, every year, this pain becomes unbearable,” said Sevdija Halilovic, a woman in her 50s whose father was laid to rest Wednesday alongside the 5,137 victims already buried there.
Mujo Salihovic, 30, had come to bury his father and one of his brothers, his other brother was already laid to rest in Potocari last year.
“I haven’t told my mother that they will be buried today. She is sick and still believes they will return,” he said tearfully.