German parliament marks 30th anniversary of Srebrenica genocide

The German parliament on Friday commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide during the Bosnian War.

"Srebrenica was the worst war crime on European soil since World War II," said Julia Klöckner, the president of the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament.

"With brutal violence, the attackers separated families and deported women, children and the elderly," said Klöckner. "They kept men and boys behind in order to systematically murder them in the days that followed."

The genocide was also a failure of the United Nations, whose peacekeeping forces did not offer protection to those seeking refuge, she said.

On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serbs conquered the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica, which had been declared a "safe area" by the UN.

In the subsequent days, around 8,000 people were murdered, the majority of which were men and adolescent boys.

Women, girls and children were deported in buses to the front line of the area controlled by the Bosnian army.

The massacre was formally recognized as a genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice.