Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar Honours Victims of Srebrenica Massacre

Srebrenica, 11 July (TASR) - Foreign and European Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar visited Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday at the invitation of his Bosnian counterpart Elmedin Konakovic, where he commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide at the Memorial Centre in the village of Potocari, the ministry’s communications department told TASR on the same day. „At a time when peace isn't a given, we in Slovakia don't forget and remind ourselves how far human hatred can go,“ Blanar said, adding that the tragedy in Srebrenica has forever marked the European continent. „More than eight thousand innocent men and boys were murdered. Their deaths, the suffering of their families and the unhealed wounds on their souls remain part of the collective memory not only of the Western Balkans region, but of the whole of Europe,“ he stated. The Srebrenica genocide represents the worst massacre in Europe since the end of the Second World War. Over several days in July 1995, more than eight thousand Bosnian men and boys were murdered in an area declared a UN safe zone. The victims of this tragedy relied on the protection of the international community until the very last moment. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague have qualified these events as genocide. lin