United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres confirmed that the United Nations failed the Srebrenica people a quarter of a century ago.
This came in a video message sent by Guterres on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, which was committed by Serbian forces against Bosnian Muslims in 1995.
At a press conference with journalists at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, Secretary-General's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that Guterres described the Srebrenica massacre as "the genocide that was the worst horrific crime on European soil since the Second World War".
"This failure (to prevent and protect the victims of the massacre) will chase our history forever," Guterres added, citing a quotation attributed to former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
"A quarter of a century ago, the United Nations and the international community failed the people of Srebrenica, and facing this past is a vital step for rebuilding confidence and achieving reconciliation backed by sympathy and understanding," he said.
The Srebrenica massacre is the largest human tragedy in Europe after the Second World War (1939-1945), given the number of brutal killings during it.
On 11 July 1995, Bosnian civilians from Srebrenica resorted to Dutch soldiers to protect them, after the Serbian forces led by Ratko Mladic occupied the city, but the Dutch forces, which were participating in the UN forces, re-handed them over to the Serbian forces, to carry out the last genocide in which he spent More than 8,000 Bosnian men and boys ranged in age from seven to 70 years.
Serbian forces also committed many massacres against Muslims during the Bosnian war that began in 1992 and ended in 1995, after the signing of the Dayton Agreement and caused the extermination of more than 300,000 people, according to United Nations figures.
The families of the victims say that more than a thousand people are still missing after the massacre in July 1995, and at the same time confirm that many of the perpetrators of the massacres against Bosnian Muslims are still at large.