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The bare numbers indicate the extent of the horror.
But they are unable to express the immeasurable suffering hidden behind these numbers.
The Bosnian war cost the lives of more than a hundred thousand people.
Two million have been displaced and tens of thousands of women have been raped.
Once again nationalism, which had long been believed to be outdated, had bloody broken ground in the Balkans and transformed the former Yugoslavia into a huge battlefield.
25 years ago, on December 14, 1995, the time had finally come: The peace treaty between Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia, negotiated in Dayton, USA, with the mediation of the USA and with the participation of the European Union, was signed in the Paris Invalides Dome.
The Dayton Agreement sealed the end of the Bosnian War.
Burial with relatives: Even years after the war, people who were previously found in mass graves are still buried in Bosnia
Source: picture-alliance / dpa
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As the darkest chapter of that war in the geographic inner courtyard of Europe, the Srebrenica genocide has burned itself deeply into our collective memories.
The systematic murder of thousands of defenseless Muslim boys and men was unique in its brutality and dimension for Europe after the Second World War.
The atrocities committed before the eyes of the world public have had a lasting impact on our view of our responsibility in the region and for international peacekeeping.
Peace and reconciliation in the Western Balkans became a litmus test for the lasting success of the European model.
The Dayton Accords marked a historic milestone for a more peaceful future.
It enabled the exit from a fatal escalation spiral of violence and counter-violence.
The long-awaited conclusion of peace gave people the prospect of an everyday life without fear for life and limb.
But even if the violence came to a standstill and the shots stopped, the Dayton Agreement did not bring about any real reconciliation.
To this day, the visible and invisible wounds of war are omnipresent, be it the bullet holes in buildings along the streets or the painful memories of lost relatives, friends or neighbors.
Ultimately, the agreement also cemented structures from which the state and social cohesion are still suffering today.
It divided Bosnia and Herzegovina into a Bosnian-Croatian Federation and a "Serbian Republic", the Republika Srpska.
Nationalism and ethnic separation thus became a basic principle of the state structure.
A woman mourns for her relatives in a cemetery near Srebrenica
Source: REUTERS
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Even today, the ethnic dividing lines in the country are still deep.
This is ensured not least by leading politicians, who too often divide instead of reconciling.
It is significant that to date there is no national law that criminalizes the denial of war crimes.
Anyone who blatantly reinterprets historical facts and does not stop at worshiping convicted war criminals or denying the genocide of Srebrenica deepens the rifts.
It is not uncommon for the targeted external influence to intensify the corresponding agitation.
The common ground, the shared worries and needs, the wish for a good future in a European Bosnia and Herzegovina should be in the foreground.
The situation in today's Bosnia and Herzegovina remains fragile.
The country's political system is highly fragmented, state structures are often inadequate, and political blockades prevent more prosperous development.
The economic situation is precarious and the unemployment rate is alarmingly high.
Widespread corruption and considerable deficits in the area of rule of law also remain effective obstacles on the way to peace, democracy and prosperity.
No future in the destroyed homeland
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It is therefore hardly surprising that many young people no longer see any prospects at home and start looking for a better future abroad.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is particularly badly affected by the so-called brain drain.
According to estimates, the country will lose more than a third of its population by 2050 compared to 1990 - and with it a high degree of inventiveness, passion and courage to dare to try new things.
But as crippling as the circumstances in Bosnia and Herzegovina appear, there is also movement in the right direction.
On several levels, we see committed people and encouraging developments that make a positive difference: There are, for example, young encouragers who are committed to regional exchange and cooperation in the youth organization of the Western Balkans RYCO or who come together in the RECOM reconciliation initiative to lay the foundation to lay for a common future.
Schoolchildren oppose the ethnic separation requested by the authorities.
Citizens of the city of Mostar are finally taking part in local elections again after more than twelve years.
The recent adoption of the revised National Strategy for Dealing with War Crimes is also an important signal.
In short: there is cause for hope!
But too often concrete progress is primarily a reaction to external pressure, such as in the case of critical judgments by the European Court of Human Rights.
Across all social rifts, an overwhelming majority of the Bosnian population stands united behind a great common goal: a future in the EU.
For many young people in particular, the united Europe of common values has lost none of its fascination.
We have to use this radiance and transformative power wisely and closely accompany the entire region on its way to the EU.
The EU has a special responsibility here.
It is all the more important that we stand by the people in their efforts to achieve reconciliation as well as in overcoming the economic and social upheavals of the Corona crisis.
And that we support them to the best of our ability in building a strong and diverse civil society and focus even more closely on the prospects of the younger generations.
Our promise is: The future of the Western Balkans lies in the EU!
For this future, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the other countries of the Western Balkans must set the course.
Albania and North Macedonia have already achieved great things on their way towards the EU, have consistently implemented an ambitious reform agenda and have not been deterred by setbacks.
With the resolution of the name dispute with Greece, North Macedonia made history in the best sense of the word.
The green light given in spring for the start of accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia was therefore the right, overdue step.
The first accession conferences with both countries must now follow as soon as possible, provided the conditions are met.
Germany has strongly advocated this during its EU Council Presidency.
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Because one thing is clear: the EU for its part must keep its word and deliver.
The accession process must not be postponed because a single EU member state has made it hostage to bilateral demands.
In the case of Kosovo, too, where we have the floor on the subject of visa liberalization, we must finally make progress.
After all, a goal that keeps moving away threatens to become a mirage - and thus also to lose its power of attraction and transformation.
We urgently need positive signals for the Western Balkans, nothing less is at stake than the EU's credibility!
The closest possible connection to the Western Balkans is in our own strategic interest.
Otherwise, other actors who have little in common with our values will find themselves in the gaps.
We cannot allow that to happen in a world in which we are faced with tough systemic competition with authoritarian powers.
If the EU failed in the Western Balkans, in our direct neighborhood - what about our global design claim, our “global political capability”?
The EU must therefore become much more involved there and become much more visible.
The new US administration will also expect us to take on more responsibility in our neighborhood.
The election of Joe Biden as US President now offers the opportunity to stand together again and resolutely for peace, reconciliation and democracy in the Western Balkans.
April 1993: Bosnian families flee the Serbs on UN trucks
Source: picture alliance / dpa
Reconciliation remains a key to change and peace.
But the path of reconciliation is long and stony and demands a lot of strength and courage from all sides.
Even 25 years after the end of the war, Bosnian society has not yet found inner peace.
New bridges have to be built where old ones have been destroyed.
It is important to generate trust where hatred and agitation have stirred up against each other;
to seek conversation even where no words have been exchanged for a long time.
For a peace in Europe's inner courtyard that is much more than just the absence of war.
But the ghosts of the past - nationalists and those who despise democracy, revisionists and divisors - have no interest in such a peace in the Bosnian present either.
They continue to cause strife, poison the social climate and block the way to a European future.
So it is high time to stand up to them with determination and banish them from the present in favor of a better future: with attitude, commitment and good arguments.
Because the toxic “success” of those ghosts is not an insurmountable law of nature, not a fate without alternatives that one simply has to or may accept.
Neither in Bosnia and Herzegovina nor anywhere else.
Source: Martin UK Lengemann / WELT
Michael Roth has been Minister of State for Europe in the Foreign Office since 2013, a directly elected member of the Bundestag since 1998 and a member of the SPD party executive since 2017.