Speech by Minister Veldkamp on the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the Genocide in Srebrenica, 2025

Speech | 11-07-2025

Dear Mothers, families, survivors,

Friends,

Your Excellencies,

Every grave here in Potočari looks the same – white headstones, lined up in endless rows.

Yet each stone bears a different name, marks the brutal ending of a unique life.

The life of a grandpa, a father, a husband, a son, a mother.

Different lives, but all with one crucial thing in common: they were Bosniaks.

And that’s why they all rest here, commemorated on these identical stones.

That was the simple reason their lives all ended on or around the same tragic day: the 11th of July, 1995 – thirty years ago.

It is for them that we are here today - and for their loved ones: their mothers, wives, siblings, children, friends.

We feel ashamed that we, the international community, failed to protect them: more than 8,000 men and boys, women and girls

And I feel ashamed, that Netherlands as part of that community, bears a moral and political responsibility, for not preventing the genocide from happening.

And so I’d like to reaffirm the deepest apologies, deepest apologies previously expressed here in Potočari on behalf of the Netherlands.

I realize that these words cannot alter the bitter reality of your loss, but we have to face the past - honestly.

And we owe it to the victims to continue remembering them.

We do so by supporting last year’s UN General Assembly resolution to declare the 11th of July the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the Genocide in Srebrenica.

And we do so by working with survivors to keep the memory alive, including through the Memorial Center, here in Potočari.

And we do so by helping educate about this genocide.

And I want to do so by being here today.

To listen to your stories.

To share your grief, and maybe anger.

To mourn with you.

All these efforts are more important than ever today, in the face of ongoing glorification of war criminals and a growing trend of denial of what happened at this place.

It is vital that all of us speak out loudly against such historical revisionism.

We need a reliable and accurate portrayal of history.

Because the bitter reality is that atrocities like in Srebrenica can happen again.

We have not become immune to such things.

After the wars in the former Yugoslavia, we hoped war on our continent was a thing of the past.

But for over three years now, we have been witnessing a devastating war of aggression in Ukraine.

And beyond Europe’s borders, we are confronted with brutal violence and immense human suffering in Sudan, the Middle East, in Myanmar and other places.

No, we cannot take away your pain – the pain you have to bear here in Srebrenica and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The pain that we share with you.

But we can continue to face the truth of history, to learn its lessons, step by step.

In the meantime, we need not be held hostage by the past.

We’re building the future, among others by contributing to stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with other European countries.

And I am grateful for the bonds of friendship that are continuing to grow between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Netherlands.

Together, we have started a new chapter in our common history – also at a European level.

Our hope is to build a future worthy of the generations yet to come.

One we can forge through respect and understanding between different communities, while never forgetting the past.

This is a weighty task, and the reality is complex and challenging.

But by building the future together, we honour all the victims of the genocide, we honour the survivors.

Hvala Vam