Srebrenica, 21 September 2014
ICTY Vice-President, Judge Carmel Agius attended the opening of the Srebrenica Documentation Centre established by the SENSE News Agency in cooperation with the Memorial Centre in Potočari. The Centre is aimed at documenting the crimes committed in Srebrenica in July 1995 which were addressed in trials before the Tribunal. The Centre shows how the events from July 1995 were investigated, reconstructed and processed before the ICTY by using witness testimonies and other evidence tendered in trials. Materials used in the Tribunal’s courtrooms are exhibited at the Centre.
Addressing the families of the victims of Srebrenica genocide, representatives of NGO’s, state officials, academics and diplomats, Judge Agius noted that there would be no better location to house this collection than the Memorial Centre in Potočari – ‘a place of sombre remembrance of everything that occurred at Srebrenica’.
Judge Agius went on to add ‘Standing here, I would like to pay tribute to those who have made the ICTY’s trials possible. The work of our Tribunal, and the creation of this important collection of materials, would not have been possible without the tireless efforts and dedication of the people who assisted in the investigation and those who came forward to testify and otherwise assist in the judicial process regarding the events at Srebrenica’.
Among the speakers addressing those gathered were the Presiding Member of the BiH Presidency, Bakir Izetbegović, the President of the Executive Board of the Memorial Centre, Sadik Ahmetović, the Director of SENSE News Agency Mirko Klarin, the Mayor of Srebrenica, Čamil Duraković and the Dean of Tuzla University, Enver Halilović.
SENSE is the only news agency that has been covering the ICTY’s work on a daily basis since its inception.