The United Nations paused on Wednesday to remember the more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys killed in the town of Srebrenica in July 1995, and the women and survivors left to rebuild their lives in the aftermath.
The massacre in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina was the largest in Europe since the Holocaust and among the darkest chapters in the Balkan wars that erupted following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
The Bosnian Serb army overran Srebrenica, which was previously declared a safe area under Security Council Resolution 819 (1993) . Many of the victims had sought protection at the UN compound in nearby Potočari but were separated from their families, executed, and buried in mass graves.
Fear, loss and survival
Hasan Hasanović was 19 when Srebrenica fell on 11 July 1995. Along with his father and twin brother Husein, he joined a column of men and boys attempting to escape through a forest.
Within hours he was separated from his relatives, walking alone for days sleepless, hungry and scared amid ambushes, executions and artillery attacks.
"Fear was all that kept me moving," said Mr. Hasanović, head of the oral history programme at the Srebrenica Memorial Center, speaking in the UN General Assembly Hall.
"Years later, after their remains were recovered from mass graves, I buried my father and my twin brother with my own hands. Nothing could prepare me for those moments."
A collective responsibility
This is the second year the UN is commemorating the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica , observed on 11 July.
The massacre "will forever lay heavily on the collective conscience of the international community, the United Nations, and the modern history of our world," said Chaloka Beyani, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide.
He called for a moment of silence to remember and honour the victims as well as the women and girls who were forcibly displaced from the enclave and tortured in the aftermath.
Two top UN courts - the International Court of Justice ( ICJ ) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) - both recognized that the acts committed there constituted genocide.
Heed the warning signs
Following Srebrenica, "the world once again said: 'Never again,'" the UN Secretary-General recalled in remarks read by his Chef de Cabinet, Earle Courtenay Rattray.
"Yet, as we know, hate speech is on the rise - fueling discrimination, extremism and division. Convicted war criminals are glorified," he said.
"We cannot turn away from these warning signs. We must act early - for prevention is our shared duty, and our surest protection."
Genocide denial 'a new threat'
Denis Bećirović, Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, underscored the need to defend the integrity of international law and the authority of international institutions more than ever.
"We must not allow facts established by court judgments to become a subject of political calculations," he said.
"The denial of the genocide against Bosniaks is an anti-civilisational act. It is an insult to the dead and a new threat to the living."
Uphold the promise of 'never again'
Annalena Baerbock, the General Assembly President , said genocide - as unfortunately witnessed in Srebrenica, Rwanda, and elsewhere - "does not begin with mass graves" but with hatred and discrimination, attempts to divide people into "us" versus "them", and policies and rhetoric that strip people of their dignity.
She urged the international community to "ensure that 'never again' is not merely a phrase we repeat, but a promise we uphold."
Emina Sinanović was only five years old when she lost her father, grandfather and uncle in the Srebrenica genocide.
Lives taken, futures stolen
"For many people, Srebrenica is history. For me, it's every day of my life. It is an invisible wall that stands between me and my father - a wall built by hatred and inhumanity," she said.
Her father Muriz, 32, was murdered on 13 July 1995 in a warehouse in Kravica "where thousands of lives and dreams were destroyed". Ms. Sinanović has few memories of him and only one memento - a small cigarette case found beside his remains in a mass grave.
Genocide "does not end when the killing stops," she said.
"It steals the future. It steals the embraces you will never receive. It steals the words you will never hear. It steals the memories you will never have the chance to create."
She called for "the world to stop looking away whenever genocide is denied, because genocide denial is the continuation of genocide."
