The remains of 520 Bosnian Muslims who were killed when the eastern enclave of Srebrenica fell into the hands of the Serb forces in mid-July 1995 were seen off from the morgue in Visoko, central Bosnia, on Monday morning and the coffins with those remains passed through the capital of Sarajevo on their way to Srebrenica where those victims will be buried on 11 July.
After the remains of those victims were unearthed in mass graves in the wider area of Srebrenica, they were sent to Visoko for identification.
During today's transport of coffins, this column of cars stopped in front of the building housing Bosnia and Herzegovina's three-member presidency in Sarajevo and on that occasion the Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak) and Croat representatives in the presidency -- Bakir Izetbegovic and Zeljko Komsic -- paid their respects to the victims, while the Serb member, Nebojsa Radmanovic, ignored this ceremony, as usual for Serb officials.
However, the international community's High Representative, Valentin Inzko, and other political parties' leaders in Sarajevo joined Izetbegovic and Komsic in the commemoration.
"Srebrenica is a black stain on the conscience of humanity. It is a stain on the conscience of those who committed those crimes as well as on the conscience of those who let it happen," Izetbegovic said.
The Serb forces raided the enclave in mid-July 1995 when it was a UN safe haven with Dutch peacekeepers being deployed there.
According to figures presented by associations of victims' families, as many as 10,701 people lost their lives in the Srebrenica enclave in the war, including 1,042 underage victims and 570 women.
One of mothers who is still searching for her son killed during the Srebrenica tragedy told the media today that this year, 83 underage victims were among those 520 to be buried in the Potocari memorial centre on Wednesday.
According to the statistics kept by the memorial centre, 8,372 people were killed when the Serb forces conquered the enclave. The bodies of a few thousand victims have been found in many multiple graves and so far 5,137 have been identified and buried in Potocari.
During this year's central commemorations on the occasion of the 17th anniversary of the Srebrenica atrocities, no Bosnian high-ranking politician has been invited to give a speech.
Apart from Srebrenica Mayor Camil Durakovic, Arthur Schneier, Senior Rabbi of Park East Synagogue in New York and a well-known advocate of ecumenical work on behalf of religious freedom, human rights, peace and inter-religious dialogue, is also expected to address the central commemoration.
Also, Jordanian Prince Prince El Hassan bin Talal has been invited by the organisers to address the Potocari ceremony at which the Grand Mufti in Bosnia, Mustafa Ceric, will lead the religious rites.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted Bosnian Serb general Radislav Krstic for genocide in Srebrenica and sentenced him to life imprisonment. This UN tribunal is currently conducting trials against wartime Bosnian Serb leaders Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic on charges of the Srebrenica genocide and other war crimes.
The Hague-based tribunal and the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina have to date found 38 Bosnian Serb servicemen guilty of the Srebrenica atrocities. They have handed down two life sentences and prison terms in the amount of over 700 years on the aggregate, with 15 of those 38 convicted persons awaiting final verdicts.
