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	Thousands gather to remember Srebrenica massacre by AFP & news agencies Bosnia   12 July, 2010   Tens of thousands of people have gathered in Bosnia to commemorate the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslims by Bosnian Serbs and bury 775 newly identified victims.   The massacre, the worst single atrocity on European soil since World War II, is the darkest episode in the violent break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.   Men passed green-draped coffins from hand to hand towards freshly dug graves. Sobbing women murmured prayers as they kneeled among rows of white marble gravestones.   Hatidza Mehmedovic, 58, said she came to bury her husband and two sons, killed when they were aged 18 and 21.   "Now I can only fight for justice to be served.. I waited for them to return alive.. I could not believe such a crime could have been committed.. It was not only my sons, thousands of people were killed. I don''t wish on any other mother to have to live through this."   Nearly 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed in the days following the fall of the Srebrenica enclave, designated a UN safe area, to Bosnian Serb troops on July 11, 1995.   The massacre has been deemed genocide by the UN war crimes court and the International Court of Justice. The victims were shot and dumped in mass graves, then reburied haphazardly in more than 70 sites in a bid to cover up the evidence.   Bones exhumed by forensic experts over the past few years were reburied in Potocari after identification through DNA testing.   The presidents of all the states that made up the former Yugoslavia were present for the commemoration, including Serbia''s president Boris Tadic.   His presence is a sore point for many survivors who say that Ratko Mladic, the fugitive Bosnian Serb wartime military commander charged with genocide by the UN war crimes court, is believed to be hiding in Serbia.   "He should be ashamed to come to Potocari as long as he hasn''t arrested the most wanted war criminals, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic," Ms Mehmedovic said.   For many years Belgrade denied the scale of the bloodbath but this March, following an initiative by Mr Tadic, the Serbian parliament passed a declaration condemning the massacre and apologising to victims and their families.   The alleged mastermind behind the Bosnian Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing and the Srebrenica killings, political leader Radovan Karadzic, was arrested in Belgrade in 2008. He is on trial for genocide before the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.   US President Barack Obama described the Srebrenica massacre as "a stain on our collective conscience".   In a statement read for him in the Bosnian town, the US president admitted the failure of the international community to protect the enclave, and said those responsible must be pursued, "there can be no lasting peace without justice".   He urged "the prosecution and arrest of those that carried out the genocide", adding: "This includes Ratko Mladic who presided over the killings and remains at large."
	Burundi: Boys Behind Bars by Unreported World Channel 4 / UK   Unreported World exposes the plight of hundreds of children in Burundi locked up for years without trial in adult prisons, among some of the most dangerous criminals in the country. And they meet one man who has dedicated his life to freeing them; Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa is the only hope many of these children have.   Burundi has no juvenile justice system and children above the age of 15 are tried as adults. By law any child under that age should not be imprisoned, but in a country recovering from civil war and where record keeping is scant, many underage children are slipping through the net and are being locked up.   There is no legal aid, and there are only 106 lawyers for a population of over eight million people. This is one of the reasons why three quarters of children are being held for long periods without trial.   While wrongly imprisoned for two years, 62-year-old Pierre found the body of a child prisoner who had been murdered. The incident affected him deeply and he decided to spend the rest of his life defending victims of injustice.   The Unreported World reporter and director Wael Dabbous travel with Pierre to a prison in Ruyigi province, one of the poorest parts of the country. They find more than 20 children in the jail, several of whom look younger than 15.   Many of them say they have been locked up having been accused of minor offences, such as stealing a bag of rice. Nestor tells the Unreported World team he is 12 and has been there for two months. ''My family never liked me. That''s why they sent me here. They''ve left me here to die,'' he says.   The team travel with Pierre to Mpimba prison, the country''s most notorious jail, which houses some of the most dangerous criminals. It was built for 800 prisoners but there are now more than 3300. The team finds nearly 100 boys sleeping in one cell, nearly all of whom are being held without trial. There''s no room to lie down or sit, so the boys are all forced to stand.   One of them, Claude, says he is 13 years old. He has been accused of rape but appears to be the victim of a dispute between families. Like other children, he may have been falsely accused of a crime in order to settle a score. He''s been held for five months without trial and says older prisoners abuse the children. Pierre decides to investigate his case.   The team travels with Pierre to Claude''s home province of Bubanza, where he meets the magistrate in charge of the case. He reveals that hospital records showed Claude''s alleged victims had in fact not been raped and that there was a feud between Claude''s family and another family.   Claude doesn''t have a birth certificate as he was born during the civil war, and Pierre needs to prove he is under 15 to get him out of jail. He travels to his home village, where Claude''s mother tells him she thinks he is 14 and that he had actually been accused of inappropriately touching his neighbours'' children.   Back in Mpimba prison, the team meets some of the 100 female prisoners locked in with the 3000 men. There are also 24 babies and toddlers living in the jail, nearly all of whom were born inside. One prisoner tells the team that that some women are forced to have sex for money in order to survive, and become pregnant.   Burundi''s Director of Prisons tells Unreported World that a lack of resources makes it impossible to hold women and children separately. He also admits that under-15s are being illegally imprisoned and blames corrupt magistrates and policemen and a lack of proper records.   Pierre is still negotiating with Claude''s neighbours, who are demanding compensation to allow Claude to return to the village. The magistrate says that Claude cannot be released if his mother does not pay the compensation, as his life will be in danger and the villagers may kill him. His mother has nothing to give. While there is no way of knowing how long Claude will be behind bars, Pierre is still fighting to get him released. Visit the related web page
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