On the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, sent a strong message, emphasizing that the memory of the 8,372 murdered men and boys must remain alive.
Khan visited the Memorial Center in Potočari a few days ago, and shared his experience and strong impressions with the public through an emotional video.
In a post on the X platform, the Mayor of London recalled that on July 11, 1995, men and boys were killed solely because of who they were.
“Fathers, sons, brothers. Their lives were taken, but their memory lives on, in the silence of the graves, in the strength of the survivors, in the generations that built and preserved the memory after them, and in our promise to never forget,” Khan said.
He added that the memory of the victims is preserved through listening to the testimonies of the survivors, learning about the past and publicly opposing hatred, so that the phrase “never again” really gets its true meaning.
In a video from his recent visit to Potočari, Khan emphasized that Srebrenica is only two hours from London and that his stay there deeply moved him. During the visit, he met with the mothers and family members of those killed, describing that day as extremely emotional.
He was particularly moved by the scenes of the victims’ personal items, shoes, and pillowcases on which the survivors had embroidered the names of their beloved sons, fathers and brothers, which they would wear every 11th of the month when going out in public.
Seeing the Memorial Center and facing what happened is something that “changes a person,” Khan said.
Khan concluded by saying that we must commit to working together and fighting violence, recalling that people have “much more in common that unites us than what divides us.”
In addition to the mayor of London, on the occasion of the International Day of Remembrance and commemoration of the anniversary of the genocide, many other world officials and international organizations and institutions also paid tribute to the victims via social networks.
