Pakistan remembers 1995 Srebrenica genocide victims

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday urged the world community to "learn a lesson" from 1995 Srebrenica genocide, and "not let such massacre happen again.”

"Today, we are observing the 25th memorial anniversary of the genocide that took place in Srebrenica. I still remember the day very well along with most people who have humanity in their hearts. I remember when it happened. we were shocked. We were appalled how in a what was a safe haven of United Nations peacekeeping forces, this massive massacre was allowed to happen.

"I still feel the shock how such a thing could have been allowed by the world community, Khan said in a video message aired by state-run Pakistan Television.

"I think, It is important that we learn lessons from that, the world community must never let such things to happen again," he went on to say.

Drawing a parallel between Srebrenica genocide, and the current situation in Indian-administered Kashmir, Khan said he feared a massacre similar to that in Srebrenica could happen in the disputed Himalayan valley.

"Today, 800,000 Indian troops have besieged 8 million people of Kashmir. And we all fear a similar sort of massacre might follow there," he said, adding: "So the world community must take notice, and never allow such acts to take place there."

- Kashmir and Palestine

In a Twitter post, in connection with the 25th anniversary of Srebrenica massacre, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said: "July 2020 marks 25 years since the Srebrenica Massacre, the murder of over 8000 Bosnian Muslims ethnic cleansing of over 20'000 people. The world has a collective responsibility to ensure history is not repeated."

"What is happening in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine is chillingly similar," he added, referring to Israel's plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank and New Delhi's scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir's longstanding special status in August 2019.

Every year on July 11, newly identified victims of the genocide are buried in a memorial cemetery in Potocari, eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thousands of visitors from various countries attend the funeral services and burials.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will participate in this year's memorial program via video link.

During a two-day visit to Bosnia's capital Sarajevo last year for a similar event, Erdogan attended a procession to commemorate thousands of innocents who fell victim to the genocide.

More than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed when Bosnian Serb forces attacked the UN "safe area" of Srebrenica in July 1995, despite the presence of Dutch troops tasked with acting as international peacekeepers.

Srebrenica was besieged by Serb forces who were trying to wrest territory from Bosnian Muslims and Croats to form their own state.

The UN Security Council had declared Srebrenica a "safe area" in the spring of 1993. However, Serb troops led by General Ratko Mladic -- later found guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide -- overran the UN zone.

The Dutch troops failed to act as Serb forces occupied the area, killing about 2,000 men and boys on July 11 alone. Some 15,000 Srebrenica residents fled into the surrounding mountains, but Serb troops hunted down and killed 6,000 of them in the forests.