Vandals damage the memorial for Srebrenica on Graz main bridge!

Vandals damage the memorial for Srebrenica on Graz main bridge!

On Friday, July 1, 2025, a temporary monument was damaged in Graz, which was built on the 30th anniversary of the devastating massacre of Srebrenica. This monument, which was designed by the initiative commemorate. Eleven white-flowering flowers were set up at the Archduke Johann Bridge, with the largest being removed by unknown people. The initiative condemns vandalism as an attack on the processing and protection of human rights and demands a complete clarification of the incident.

In order to show their displeasure with this damage, eleven people gathered on the bridge on Monday evening, symbolic for July 11th, the international day of commemoration to the Srebrenica massacre. In this context, Ge_Lehnen to the "Grazer Peace March" on Thursday at 6 p.m. is.

The massacre of Srebrenica - a dark chapter of history

The Srebrenica massacre is considered the greatest crime against humanity in Europe since World War II. On July 11, 1995, Bosnian-Serbian units marched into the city of Srebrenica under the military leader Ratko Mladić. In the following days, over 7,000 Muslim Bosnians, mostly men and boys, were brutally murdered. The decay of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s led to a bloody civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which ethnic tensions escalated and several population groups were sold. Srebrenica, which was declared as a UN security zone, should actually offer protection. However, around 350 UN soldiers could not perform this task.

The massacre was recognized as a genocide of both the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice. Historian Belma Zulic, who works in the museum of crimes against humanity and genocide in Sarajevo, indicates that the search for the remains of the victims continues to this day. In 2003 a memorial cemetery in Potočari was inaugurated, on which several thousand victims are buried.

international memorial days and persistent controversial discussions

not in the coming year, 2024, Bosnia and Herzegovina will first commemorate the Srebrenica genocide internationally together with the United Nations. These tragic events are still controversial, especially in the Serbian sub -Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where political tensions about the classacre classacre exist as genocide. While the UN General Assembly rates the massacre as one of the darkest chapters of the Bosnia War, some Serbian politicians are unimpressed, which has also led to demonstrations in the past.

The commemoration day should not only be thought of the victim, but also the denial of such crimes should also be combated. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić was often drawn into controversy due to political disputes about the events in Srebrenica, whereby his statements are interpreted differently. In this area of ​​tension between remembering and forgetting, the importance of the Srebrenica massacre for European history remains both humanly and politically of great scope.