Diana Wallis attends anniversary of Srebrenica genocide

5.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 11th Jul 2008

Vice President of the European Parliament, Diana Wallis MEP travelled to Bosnia on Friday to attend the anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica and Žepa which occurred in 1995. An additional 330 identified and previously missing persons were buried, 13 years after the massacre, at the Srebrenica-Poto?ari Memorial and Cemetery to Genocide Victims.

Accompanied by Slovenian Liberal MEP, Jelko Kacin, Diana Wallis attended the commemoration on the invitation of the President of the Committee responsible for organizing the event and the Mayor of the Municipality of Srebrenica, Abdurahman Malki. The two MEPs laid flowers at the cemetary memorial and Diana Wallis made a speech on behalf of the President of the European Parliament.

The EU parliamentarians also viewed new houses built for returnees by Lady Nott who heads the successful Slovenian Fund for Refugees. To date over one hundred replacement houses have been built with monies released by the Fund, thereby facilitating the return of refugees. This has regenerated villages which had been subject to ethnic cleansing and has contributed towards rehabilitation in the post-war period.

The Srebrenica massacre, which took place in July 1995, with the killing of an estimated 8.000 human beings, is the largest mass-murder in Europe since the second World War.

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You can watch Diana speak about the memorial service in Srebrenica here.