LATEST DEVELOPMENTS FOR FRIDAY, JULY 10TH 2009.

14th Anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide will be held
tommorow on July 11th, 2009.

PHOTO: A Bosnian Muslim girl touches coffins of relatives, among coffins of Srebrenica genocide victims displayed at the memorial centre of Potocari near Srebrenica on July 10, 2009.

1. Serbian human rights activists push for Srebrenica genocide remembrance..

2. Bike marathon from Bihac to Srebrenica, 500 km / 310 miles long!
3. Montenegro Parliament declares July 11th Srebrenica Remembrance Day.
4. DNA results confirm 6,186 genocide victims, supports an estimate of 8,100.
5. Jelko Kacin and Diana Wallis honored with a prestigious Srebrenica award.
6. Tensions rise in Kravica, former Serb military base (1992-1995).
7. Bosnian Serb deputies block Srebrenica Remembrance Day.
8. How it all started? Do Not Forget!

1. Serbian human rights groups are urging authorities to declare July 11 a day of remembrance for the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide. Dozens of activists rallied in front of the presidential building Friday calling for the support of President Boric Tadic. They say Serbia has a moral obligation and responsibility to remember more than 8,000 Bosniaks who were summarily executed by Bosnian Serb troops in July 1995. The human rights groups are also pressuring authorities to capture former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic, who was charged with genocide by a U.N. court for orchestrating the massacre.

2. The 5th annual bike marathon started this morning from the city square in Bihac with participation of 130 cyclists from Bosnia-Herzegovina and seven other European countries under the slogan “Never to be Forgotten and Repeated.” Participants will cross more than 500 kilometers in three stages with overnight stays in Jajce and Sarajevo. They will participate in the central genocide commemoration of the Srebrenica massacre on Saturday July 11th in Potocari-Srebrenica. The youngest participant is only 10 years old, while the oldest is from Germany age 65.

3. In neighboring Montenegro, Parliament late Thursday condemned the killings and declared July 11 Srebrenica Remembrance Day. Members of the ruling coalition and representatives of the opposition Movement for Change supported the document, while representatives of the Socialist People's Party abstained from voting. The New Serbian Democracy party voted against the declaration.

4. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, organisers plan a memorial service Saturday to mark the 14th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre. The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) issued a press release saying that so far, 6186 victims have been identified using DNA analysis. The ICMP also stated that "the overall high matching rate between DNA extracted from these bone and blood samples leads ICMP to support an estimate of close to 8100 individuals missing from the fall of Srebrenica." On Thursday, the remains of 534 victims were sent to the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial in Potocari for burial during the service.

5. Slovenian MEP Jelko Kacin and his ALDE colleague Diana Wallis received on Friday the Srebrenica 1995 award for their initiative to make 11 June Remembrance Day of the Srebrenica Genocide in the European Union (EU). Slovenian MPs paid their respects to the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide at the outset of Friday's proceedings in the National Assembly.

6. The inhabitants of Serb village of Kravica participated in brutal attacks on Bosnian Muslim villages around Srebrenica and the town of Srebrenica in 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1995. Kravica was a heavily militarized Serb village used to launch artillery attacks on the neighbouring Bosniak villages, as well as to terrorize Bosnian Muslim population in the besieged enclave of Srebrenica. [ Read Full Article Here ]

7. Sabina Niksic reports from Sarajevo that the Bosnian Serb deputies in the Bosnian parliament blocked an initiative to declare July 11 the Srebrenica genocide remembrance day in the former Yugoslav republic. Recently, Bosnian Serb MPs also blocked the initiative in Parliamentary Assembly of BiH to have January 27th declared as Holocaust Remembrance Day.

8. How it all started? In April 1992 (more than three years before the Srebrenica massacre), Serb forces -- with logistical and military help from Serbia -- began a widespread campaign of brutal "ethnic cleansing" of the Bosniak [Bosnian Muslim] population of Eastern Bosnia. Thousands of Bosniak refugees flocked to Srebrenica. They were forced to live in the besieged enclave with little or no means of survival and under brutal Serb attacks. Many starved to death. 

Serb Army stationed around Srebrenica never demilitarized, even though they were required to do so under the 1993 demilitarization agreement. In 1992 alone, approximately 100,000 Bosniaks had been expelled from their homes and at least 11,391 Bosniaks were killed by Serb forces in eastern Bosnia (source: Research & Documentation Centre in Sarajevo), while hundreds of Bosnian Muslim villages were destroyed around Srebrenica.

Serb forces stationed around Srebrenica constantly attacked neighbouring Bosniak villages and Srebrenica itself. They also bombarded Srebrenica from air with Serbian airplanes.

In July 1995 the Bosnian Serb army staged a brutal takeover of Srebrenica and its surrounding area, where they proceeded to perpetrate genocide. Bosnian Serb soldiers -- with military and logistical help from Serbia -- separated families, committed brutal rapes of many women and girls, and then forcibly expelled at least 20,000, while summarily executing 8,372 Bosniak men and teenage boys. Srebrenica genocide is remembered the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.

 More updates coming on July 11th. Stay tuned.