Summary: July 11, 2005: Javier SOLANA, EU High Representative for the CFSP, on the commemoration of the Srebrenica massacre (Brussels)
Javier Solana, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, issued the following statement today on the occasion of the international ceremony being held at Srebrenica to commemorate the atrocity of ten years ago:
"While I am unable to be present at today's ceremony, my thoughts are with the victims of the Srebrenica massacre.
"The merciless and systematic slaughter of Muslim men and boys by Serbian forces and paramilitaries was the darkest hour of the wars in the former Yugoslavia. The memories of that monstrous crime still haunt us all. The victims had put their trust in international protection. But we, the international community, let them down. This was a colossal, collective and shameful failure.
"The realisation that we lacked the tools to address the disaster collectively at EU level was a terrible lesson to us. Srebrenica was partly a consequence of the absence of a strong and united
Europe. Since then, we have forged a more united EU foreign policy, with a crisis-management capacity to back it up. Bosnia-Hercegovina has been a top priority for EU external action And, provided clear conditions are met, we will accompany Bosnia-Hercegovina toward its final destination of entry into the EU.
"Ten years after the Srebrenica atrocity, a great deal of progress has been achieved in Bosnia and the wider region.
"But there can be no integration without reconciliation. And there can be no reconciliation without justice. The ghosts of Srebrenica cannot be laid to rest while some suspects, indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, notably Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, remain free."
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