Britain’s King Charles III on Friday marked the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide with a message in which he paid tribute to the victims, praised the “extraordinary courage, compassion and dignity” of the survivors and urged the world to learn from the past to prevent future atrocities.
“I spoke earlier about the terrible events thirty years ago, which international courts confirmed as genocide,” the king said.
“Many of the individuals responsible for these acts are now rightly brought to justice, but that does not absolve the rest of us of our responsibility: to acknowledge the failure of the international community to prevent this horror, and to do everything we can to ensure it never happens again.”
He especially referred to the mothers of Srebrenica and other survivors, calling their resilience “a lesson for all of us”.
“It meant a lot to me that in previous years I had the opportunity to meet the survivors, mothers and family members of the missing, whom I greatly admire,” he said.
The King also praised those working for reconciliation and justice: “These commendable individuals come from all walks of life and from all ethnic groups, both in Bosnia and Herzegovina and around the world.”
He stressed the importance of truth and remembrance: “There can be no shared future if the events of the past are denied or forgotten.”
The King’s message comes as the Duchess of Edinburgh is in Bosnia and Herzegovina attending commemorations.
