The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the European Council, António Costa, commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide on Friday 11 July.
“The European Union will never forget what happened in this city. We acknowledge our past and our responsibility for the failure to prevent and stop the genocide”, declared the President of the Commission.
Travelling to Sarajevo to pay tribute to the victims alongside the authorities of Bosnia-Herzegovina, António Costa said that the EU was determined to “help Bosnia-Herzegovina overcome the legacy of the past and build a future as a member of the EU”.
In the summer of 1995, more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and children were killed by units of the army of the Bosnian Serb Republic, under the command of General Ratko Mladić, in a town declared a ‘safe area’ by the United Nations (UN), where 400 UN peacekeepers were on duty. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)