The Princess Royal has spent three days in Bosnia-Herzogovina where one of her responsibilities was to represent Britain at a service marking the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre. Princess Anne stood alongside other dignitaries including Queen Noor of Jordan, Bill Clinton and former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, at the ceremony which remembered those killed in the worst atrocity on European soil since the Second World War.
The Princess Royal took part in commemorations twenty years on from the Srebrenica massacre
The Princess Royal travelled to the Potocari cemetery for the memorial service. During her visit she saw the memorial to more than 8,000 people who were killed at Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb forces in an area designated as a UN safe haven. During the ceremony protesters threw stones at the Serbian Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic, who had been praised by many for attending as a gesture of reconciliation.
Before travelling to Bosnia-Herzogovina, The Princess Royal had said she was honoured to represent the people of the United Kingdom at the commemorations and added ‘my thoughts and prayers will be for the victims – those who died, and those they left behind.’ The princess also said that ‘we should all, wherever we live in the world, work for understanding and tolerance between all peoples’.
As part of her time in Bosnia-Herzogovina, Princess Anne also visited the Memorial Gallery which documents the massacre, those who died in it and its impact on families and wider communities.
The Princess Royal also paid her respects to British service personnel who lost their lives while on active service in Bosnia-Herzogovina when she paid a visit to Camp Butmir in Sarajevo. Princess Anne paid tribute at the memorial there and also met European Forces personnel based at the camp.
Earlier in her trip, Princess Anne had visited a project in Sarajevo being run by Save The Children of which she is patron. The programme aims to help street involved children by creating drop in centres designed to be safe havens. There the children are given support such as psycho-social counselling but one of the main aims of the centre is to make sure their most basic needs are met – that includes ensuring they have food, somewhere to sleep and a chance to wash.
During her time at the centre, Princess Anne met some of those who have been helped by it as well as the staff providing support. Save the Children’s country director in Bosnia-Herzogovina, Andrea Zeravcic, said afterwards ‘The visit by Her Royal Highness is a huge boost, not only for the staff but to the children, to show them we are here for the long term.’
And the anniversary that Anne had helped mark wasn’t far from anyone’s mind as Andrea Zeravcic went on ‘When we mark the tragic 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, it is important to remind ourselves that the consequences of the past still strongly affect the youngest generation who hadn’t even been born at the time. We need to work together to make sure this is not the case for future generations. We are grateful to the Princess Royal for taking time to be with us today.’
Photo credit: UK in the Philippines via Flickr