It happened in Europe, a continent which regards itself as the standard-bearer of civilization.
The main architects of this horrific crime against humanity have still not been brought to book due to negligence and silence by the international community and the double-standard policy of world powers.
About 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica in 1995 in Europe's worst atrocity since World War II.
Everyone in the West and the East is calling for international solidarity to fight the roots of terrorism. Unfortunately, Muslims are often portrayed as the first and foremost sponsors of terrorism, with the Middle East labeled as the main breeding ground of terrorism.
Today we witness many barbaric acts of terrorism committed against Muslims. However, the international community is for the most part silent about such crimes committed against Muslims but often eager to charge Muslims in similar cases, even when the evidence is scant.
Those world powers that rushed to Afghanistan and Iraq under the pretext of combating terrorism now claim that they are incapable of arresting the two most wanted war criminals in Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite the fact that their hideouts are not difficult to locate.
Ten years ago on July 11, 1995, one of the worst and most horrific crimes in history happened in Srebrenica. The perpetrators maliciously used uniforms and white trucks similar to those used by UN peacekeeping forces to commit the atrocities.
The terrorists sealed off the streets of the city in order to keep the Red Cross and reporters away from the crime scene, the BBC reported.
Yesterday, tens of thousands of people attended ceremonies in Srebrenica to mark the tenth anniversary of the massacre.
Grieving relatives buried more than 600 newly identified dead after prayers and words of support from international and local officials.
Muslim prayers echoed through the valley of the memorial site at Potocari, the site of the slaughter, as women in white headscarves wept beside the remains of their loved ones.
The green coffins were then passed from hand to hand through the crowd to the freshly dug grave sites, as announcers called out one by one the names of the 610 dead.
Serbia's parliament observed a minute of silence for all victims of atrocities in and around Srebrenica, and also for the victims of last week’s bomb attacks in London.
But it failed to make specific reference to the massacre, and was boycotted by the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party.
Earlier, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw apologized on behalf of the international community for not doing enough to prevent what he described as one of the darkest chapters of European history since 1945.
"For it is to the shame of the international community that this evil took place under our noses and we did nothing like enough. I bitterly regret this and I am deeply sorry for it," he said.
He added that it was "sickening" that former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his army commander General Ratko Mladic, who are accused of the slaughter, had not yet been brought to justice.
Also attending Monday's ceremonies were former U.S. Balkans envoy Richard Holbrooke and the president of the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Theodor Meron.
But the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, boycotted the occasion to protest against the failure to arrest Karadzic and Mladic.
Bosnian police provided security for the event, which took place in the Serb-controlled part of the country, but international peacekeepers and police officers watched from a distance.
In Serbia, many still believe the mass killings never took place. But a new video showing the execution of Muslim civilians sparked national soul-searching among Serbs last month.
Dutch peacekeepers who were guarding the Srebrenica enclave at the time of the massacre have accepted partial responsibility for what happened.
Many of the widows attending the ceremony are still waiting to see justice done, says the BBC's Nick Hawton in Srebrenica.
"They killed my entire life and the only thing I want now is to see the guilty ones pay for it," Fatima Budic, whose 14-year-old son Velija was one of the victims, told the AP news agency.
The wounds of Bosnian Muslims will be healed only when Karadzic is brought to justice. He is held responsible for the killing of 8000 Muslims in Bosnia. Some Western media call Karadzic a psychiatrist who turned into a doctor of death.
An old Bosnian man said, “We don’t know about the whereabouts of Karadzic but ask the Americans and British. They know where he is hidden and if they wanted to arrest him, they definitely could do it.”
For the families of the victims of the Srebenica massacre, justice delayed is justice denied.
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