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STORY: UN / SREBRENICA 1995 GENOCIDE
TRT: 03:38
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 09 JULY 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
09 JULY 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, General Assembly Hall
3. Pan right, moment of silence
4. Wide shot, Chef de Cabinet Earle Courtenay Rattray walks up to the GA rostrum
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Earle Courtenay Rattray, Chef de Cabinet to the United Nations Secretary-General:
“In July 1995, more than eight thousand Bosnian Muslim men and boys, many seeking the protection of the United Nations compound in Potočari, were systematically separated from their families, executed and buried in mass graves. Thousands of women, children, and older persons were forcibly displaced. An entire generation was robbed of its future. It was the worst atrocity on European soil since the Second World War.”
6. Wide shot, delegates
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Earle Courtenay Rattray, Chef de Cabinet to the United Nations Secretary-General:
“The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice found that acts committed in Srebrenica in 1995 constituted genocide. They also reaffirmed that responsibility for that crime is individual, and should be laid upon any ethnic, religious, or other group or community.”
8. Pan left, delegates
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Earle Courtenay Rattray, Chef de Cabinet to the United Nations Secretary-General:
“But we must also confront a difficult reality; after Srebrenica, the world once again said never again. Yet, as we know, hate speech in on the rise fuelling discrimination, extremism, and division. Convicted war criminals and glorified. We cannot turn away from these warning signs. We must act early – for prevention is our shared duty, and our surest protection.”
10. Wide shot, Rattray at the GA rostrum
11. Wide shot, Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Denis Bećirović at the GA rostrum
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Denis Bećirović, Chairman of the Presidency, Bosnia and Herzegovina:
“The highest courts of the United Nations proved what happened in Srebrenica in 1995. The genocide committed against Bosnia has been thoroughly documented, scientifically proven and confirmed by court judgments. The genocide against Bosniaks is not a statistic. These are not numbers. It is about interrupted human lives. People who have names, families and dreams, children who never grow up. Mothers whose sons never return home.”
13. Wide shot, Bećirović at the rostrum
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Denis Bećirović, Chairman of the Presidency, Bosnia and Herzegovina:
“Today more than ever, we must defend the integrity of international law and the authority of international institutions. We must not allow facts established by court judgments to become a subject of political calculations. The denial of the genocide against Bosniaks is an anti-civilization act. It is an insult to the dead and the new threat to the living.”
15. Various shots, Bećirović at the rostrum
Addressing the General Assembly’s observance of the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica, the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denis Bećirović, today (9 Jul) said, “the denial of the genocide against Bosniaks is an anti-civilization act. It is an insult to the dead and the new threat to the living.”
Secretary-General António Guterres, in remarks delivered by his Chef de Cabinet Earle Courtenay Rattray, recalled that “in July 1995, more than eight thousand Bosnian Muslim men and boys, many seeking the protection of the United Nations compound in Potočari, were systematically separated from their families, executed and buried in mass graves.”
Rattray said, “thousands of women, children and older persons were forcibly displaced. An entire generation was robbed of its future. It was the worst atrocity on European soil since the Second World War.
He recalled that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) had found that “acts committed in Srebrenica in 1995 constituted genocide,” while reaffirming that “responsibility for that crime is individual, and should be laid upon any ethnic, religious or other group or community.”
Rattray said, “we must also confront a difficult reality; after Srebrenica, the world once again said never again. Yet, as we know, hate speech in on the rise fuelling discrimination, extremism, and division. Convicted war criminals and glorified. We cannot turn away from these warning signs. We must act early – for prevention is our shared duty, and our surest protection.”
The Bosnian President, for his part said, “the genocide against Bosniaks is not a statistic. These are not numbers. It is about interrupted human lives. People who have names, families and dreams, children who never grow up. Mothers whose sons never return home.”
He stressed that “more than ever, we must defend the integrity of international law and the authority of international institutions. We must not allow facts established by court judgments to become a subject of political calculations.”
The International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica is observed annually on 11 July to honour the victims of the July 1995.
Srebrenica, declared a “safe area” under UN Security Council Resolution 819 in April 1993, became a refuge for tens of thousands fleeing violence. By July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces, led by General Ratko Mladić, launched Operation Krivaja 95, capturing the town on 11 July. Over the following days, up to 8,372 Bosniak men and boys were systematically executed, and around 25,000–30,000 women, children, and elderly were forcibly transferred.
