Srebrenica Genocide Anniversary Marked in Belgrade Amidst Counter-Protest

A commemoration of the 31st anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide in Belgrade's Republic Square concluded without major incidents, despite the presence of a counter-protest. Citizens gathered on Saturday evening to light candles and lay flowers, organized by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights.

The initiative urged Serbian institutions to adopt the UN General Assembly's Resolution on the Srebrenica genocide and implement its recommendations, including declaring July 11th a day of remembrance. However, their efforts were met with opposition from a group led by Simo Spasić, president of the Association of Families of Kidnapped, Killed, and Missing Persons from Kosovo.

Spasić's group, numbering around ten individuals, displayed banners with messages such as "Naser Orić genocide 1992-1993" and "Memento! Remember Serbs." They also asserted that Muslim soldiers killed 3,267 Serbs in the Srebrenica area during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This group actively disrupted the commemoration, using megaphones to negate the occurrence of genocide and disturb the silence.

Police intervened to separate the two groups, managing to keep the situation under control. Among the attendees at the commemoration were German Ambassador to Belgrade Anke Konrad, Green-Left Front MP Biljana Đorđević, Veran Matić, chairman of the Steering Board of the Association of Independent Electronic Media, and lawyer Aleksandar Olenik. Earlier that day, activists from the Youth Initiative installed 11 "Srebrenica flowers" made of buttons in a Belgrade street as a memorial, titled "The Flower That Remains."