On the occasion of the 26th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has reiterated the UK’s ongoing commitment to supporting reconciliation across the Western Balkans.

“Today, we pause to remember the victims and honour the survivors of the Srebrenica genocide. The United Kingdom continues to play a vital role in ending impunity for these horrific crimes as we have shown by agreeing to provide the prison cell so Radovan Karadzic can serve his life sentence for the genocide,” said the UK official.

Raab urged political leaders in the region to reject hate speech, to condemn any glorification of the perpetrators of genocide and war crimes, and to respect the verdicts of international and domestic courts.

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office also recalled that the genocide claimed the lives of over 8,000 mostly Muslim men and boys and led to the displacement of over 20,000 women and children who were forcibly expelled from their homes.

UK ambassador to BiH Matt Field also called for remembrance of the genocide victims.

Today we remember all those killed in the #SrebrenicaGenocide. pic.twitter.com/UjHdQfySi0

— Matt Field (@MattFieldUK) July 11, 2021

Nineteen more victims of the Srebrenica massacre, which two international courts ruled was an act of genocide, will be buried on Sunday with thousands more victims who were found and identified in the past years.

The youngest among them will be Azmir Osmanovic who was 16 at the moment of his death in 1995.