15/7/2005
Commissioner Olli Rehn Pays Tribute To The Victims Of Srebrenica

Mr Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Enlargement paid tribute this week to those who had died in the massacre at Srebrenica, in July 1995.

"I am in Srebrenica today," he said, "because we have a duty to remember what happened 10 years ago. So that we shall see no more Srebrenicas. So that ethnic hatred and destructive nationalism will be buried – in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Balkans, in the whole of Europe. For the sake of justice and reconciliation we must continue to support the important work carried out by the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, ICTY. Those bearing the main responsibility for the atrocities at Srebrenica, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, are still at large. This is unacceptable. Their place is not in the region – it is in The Hague. Bosnia and Herzegovina has the prospect of joining the European Union. First the country needs a Stabilisation and Association agreement with the European Union. The EU is ready to start such negotiations as soon as BiH delivers on the two outstanding issues – on police reform and on a new law for public broadcasting. It is in the hands of the political leadership in this country. To work for a better future for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Western Balkans in the EU is the best way to commemorate the victims of the Srebrenica massacre", concluded Commissioner Rehn.

Meanwhile United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was also commemorating the tragedy. " May we all learn, and act on, the lessons of Srebrenica,” he said in a message to a ceremony in Potocari-Srebrenica, delivered by his Chief of Staff Mark Malloch Brown.

“Our first duty is to uncover, and confront, the full truth about what happened…[and] for us who serve the United Nations, that truth is a hard one to face,” Mr Annan said, adding: “We can say – and it is true – that great nations failed to respond adequately.”

He said that it was also true that there should have been stronger military forces in place, and a stronger will to use them and that it was undeniable that blame lies first and foremost with those who planned and carried out the massacre, or who assisted them, or who harboured and are harbouring them still. “But we cannot evade our own share of responsibility,” he said.