Oratorio to honor victims of Srebrenica

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Deputy Assistant of US Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker pays respects to victims of the massacre at Memorial Cemetery in Potocari, near Srebrenica. AFP photo

Ankara will play host to a musical commemoration tonight for the thousands of people who perished in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre with a specially composed oratorio that all features a performance by Turkey’s Presidential Symphony Orchestra.

“We are continuing to tell the story of the massacre in the most effective way,” said Dzemaludin Latic, the writer of the oratorio, “Srebrenica Inferno,” which will be performed at MEB Salon.

“We see the most effective way to tell the story is via art,” said Latic, who was also the writer of the war-time Bosnian national anthem,.

Latic, who was close to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s first president, Alija Izetbegovic, while they were both imprisoned, wrote the piece in commemoration of the thousands of lives lost in the Srebrenica massacre. Delo Jusic, meanwhile, composed the piece.

The writer said they were hoping many high-level representatives would attend the performance; Bakir Izzetbegovic, a member of the Bosnia State Ministry Council, is expected to be among the high-ranking officials in the audience for the concert.

Massacre

The Srebrenica massacre refers to 1995 killing of more than 8,000 Bosniaks, mainly men and boys, in and around the town of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by units of the Army of Republika Srpska under the command of Gen. Ratko Mladic. It was described by the then-secretary-general of the United Nations, Boutros-Ghali, as the worst crime on European soil since World War II.