STORY: Bosnia on Saturday (July 11) commemorated the 31st anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, in which around 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb forces.

Mourners this year are laying to rest the remains of 10 recently-identified victims, some with no more than a few bones.

About 1,000 victims have yet to be found from Europe's worst atrocity since World War Two, which, decades later, still haunts Bosnia and Herzegovina's 3 million people. Families who retrieved victims' remains have increasingly opted to bury even just a few bones to give them a final resting place.

The massacre unfolded after Srebrenica - a designated U.N. "safe area" for civilians in Bosnia's war that followed the disintegration of federal Yugoslavia - was overrun by nationalist Bosnian Serb forces. While the women opted to go to the U.N. compound, men tried to escape through nearby woods where most of them were caught. Some were shot immediately, and others were driven to schools or warehouses where they were killed in the following days. The bodies were dumped in pits then dug up months later and scattered in smaller graves in an effort to conceal the crime.

General Ratko Mladic, who commanded the forces, was convicted of genocide by a U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, along with Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic. Two international courts have ruled the massacre was genocide but Serb leaders in Bosnia and Serbia dispute the term, the death toll and the official account of what went on.

In 2024, the U.N. General Assembly declared July 11 an international day of remembrance of the Srebrenica genocide.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

SHOWS: SREBRENICA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (JULY 11, 2026) (REUTERS – Access all)

1. VARIOUS DRONE VIEWS OF CEMETERY AT POTOCARI MEMORIAL, FLAG OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (MUTE)

2. VARIOUS OF LORRY DECORATED WITH FLOWERS AND BOSNIAN FLAG ARRIVING TO POTOCARI, PEOPLE CARRYING OUT COFFINS

3. MEN CARRYING COFFIN

4. WOMAN GRIEVING BY COFFIN

5. WOMEN PRAYING

6. WOMAN AND CHILDREN MOURNING BY COFFINS

7. (SOUNDBITE) (Bosnian) AMAR MASOVIC, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOSNIAN FEDERAL COMMISSION FOR MISSING PERSONS, SAYING:

“Part of the overall tragedy of the survivors of the genocide is that there is no real final ending for them. Very few families, perhaps a few hundred, have been given the opportunity to bury the complete remains of their loved ones who were found in primary graves.”

8. WOMAN WITH YOUNG BOY STANDING BY STONE READING LIST OF THE NUMBER OF VICTIMS

9. VARIOUS OF ELNES ALIC WITH HIS SON AND AN IMAM BY COFFIN

10. (SOUNDBITE) (Bosnian) MOURNER, ELNES ALIC, SAYING:

“After 31 years, it is still not complete. The last time something was found was 2014 and that's it, nothing more. So we decided that we have nothing more to wait for, at least for this little that is left to find peace.”

11. ALIC BY COFFINS

12. VARIOUS OF WOMEN BY COFFINS, GRIEVING, COMFORTING EACH OTHER

13. ROWS OF HEADSTONES

14. (SOUNDBITE) (Bosnian) MOURNER, ZINETA GABELJIC, SAYING:

“Everyone got killed. There is not a day without the soul hurting, the heart hurting. Take pills and live on, and how to live...”

15. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE VISITING GRAVES, ROWS OF HEADSTONES

16. VARIOUS OF MEN CARRYING COFFINS TO CEMETERY

17. CROWDS IN CEMETERY