Killed just because of who they were: Bosnian and Muslim

On July 11, Bosnia will mark the 20th anniversary of the worst mass killing in Europe since World War II: the genocid at Srebrenica. The discovery of that unforgivable crime against humanity - of broken bodies piled in mass graves - shocked the conscience of the world. Some 50,000 people are expected to attend ceremonies mourning the 8,000 Muslim men and boys killed in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, which had been declared a safe place for civilians by the United Nations.

In the summer of 1995 Srebrenica was overrun by troops led by Ratko Mladić, currently on trial at The Hague for ordering the killings. Dutch UN peacekeepers watched on as Serb troops herded men and boys from the town to be murdered. Some 15,000 men tried to run away through the woods toward government-held territory while others joined the town's women and children in seeking refuge at the base of the Dutch U.N. troops who were deployed to protect the town. 

But the United Nations did nothing to stop the fall of Srebrenica and the outnumbered and outgunned Dutch troops could only watch as Serb soldiers separated about 2,000 men from women for killing and later hunted down and killed another 6,000 men in the woods. Thousands were murdered when troops commanded by Serbian General Ratko Mladić overran a U.N. enclave protected by Dutch troops.

Since the end of the war, hundreds of Bosniak families have searched for missing relatives, most of who were buried in mass graves around the country. The remains of 7,100 of the dead have been found out of total of 8,372 missing. That leaves some 1,200 people left to find, and many more surviving relatives in perpetual agony.

Amor Mašović, the chairman of the Bosnian Missing Persons Institute told the story of one man, Kadrija Musić, who had been 23 at the time of the massacre. Six of his bones were found in five different locations up to 32km apart.

As the 20th anniversary of this genocide approaches, you might have thought that there would only be dignified remembrance, international consensus to honour the dead, and more efforts towards stabilising the Balkans. Instead, on Wednesday Russia vetoed a draft U.N. resolution condemning the massacre as an act of genocide, despite two international courts having declared it so. 

Serbia on Saturday asked Russia to veto a British UN Security Council resolution that would call the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys during the Bosnian war in Srebrenica genocide.

Serbian state television said the country's pro-Russian President Tomislav Nikolic has sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin "pleading" for a Russian "no" in the UN council when the resolution is expected to be tabled next week.

Srebrenica, a city of refuge created by the United Nations during the Balkans war, became a metaphor for the failure of the world to prevent the genocide.