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Islamic Human Rights Commission
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03 July 2008

PRESS RELEASE: Bosnia – IHRC on Srebrenica genocide at 13 years

IHRC remembers Srebrenica massacre on 13 year anniversary, welcomes current civil action against the Dutch State by relatives of victims.

13 years after the largest genocide on European soil after World War II, in which an estimated 8,000 civilian, Bosnian Muslims were mercilessly slaughtered in the UN “safe haven” at Srebrenica, IHRC expresses concern over the lack of global attention.

The implication of the European and global reaction to Srebrenica has very much expressed a lesser regard for Muslim casualties, despite the scale of the incident. Unfortunately, the same racial and religiously-charged anti-Muslim sentiments which led up to the massacre, despite being comparable only to that which Jews felt prior to the Holocaust, have increased exponentially during the so-called global war on terror.

While the panic-stricken wake of 9/11 has successfully justified a war which has cost upwards of 90,000 civilian casualties in Iraq, we ask what efforts have been made to locate Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, masterminds of the Srebrenica genocide, and bring them to justice? Moreover and in light of this lack of attention, how are present-day Muslims meant to regard discussions about shared values?

Nevertheless, IHRC welcomes the recent civil action against the Dutch State[1], alleging its failed responsibility to protect the plaintiffs’ family members massacred at Srebrenica in 1995, in spite of acting under a UN mandate to protect them. Likewise, on the occasion of the 13 year anniversary of this horrendous massacre, IHRC expresses special solidarity with the victims’ family members as well as its survivors.

IHRC Chair Massoud Shadjareh commented:

“It is tragic that this latest massacre and genocide in Europe has received such silence from the international community as a consequence, let alone from Europe itself. While this has no doubt had a tremendous impact on the Muslim community, how does this stand in light of the world’s post-Holocaust commitment to ‘never again’?”

For more information please contact the Press Office on (+44) 20 8904 4222 or (+44) 7958 522 196 email info@ihrc.org.[ENDS]

Notes to Editors:

[1] Please see https://www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=3428, for further details of the case being brought by relatives of victims of the massacre.
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The Islamic Human Rights Commission is an NGO in special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

Islamic Human Rights Commission
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HA9 7XH
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Telephone (+44) 20 8904 4222
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Email: info@ihrc.org
Web: www.ihrc.org

IHRC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations