The remains of 136 Srebrenica genocide victims were readied for burial in the Bosnian town where in 1995 Europe experienced its worst massacre since World War II.
The remains of each victim, recently found in mass graves, were identified by DNA testing, and will be laid to rest on Saturday, the 20th anniversary of the massacre.
The U.S. will send former President Bill Clinton to lead the U.S. delegation at the ceremony. Event organizers plan to host 50,000 observers at the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Center and Cemetery.
According to Newsweek, the U.N. Security Council designated Srebrenica a "safe area" in 1993, writing that it "condemns and rejects the deliberate actions of the Bosnian Serb party to force the evacuation of the civilian population from Srebrenica and its surrounding areas as well as from other parts of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of its overall abhorrent campaign of 'ethnic cleansing.'"
Two years later, Serb troops invaded, killing roughly 8,000 Muslim men and boys. The women and girls were sent to Muslim-held territory.
"I don't know how he was killed, but I remember the moment when he was separated from us," survivor Hafiza Tihic, 60, said of her father Ramiz, who will be buried Saturday.
"I entered a bus and he was put to one side. What did they do to him later? Only they would know." Having also lost her brother during the massacre, she said, "It is so painful today, like he just died."
Another woman who lost her father noted that "only four bones were found" among his remains.
On Wednesday, Serbia-allied Russia vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have recognized the massacre as a formal "genocide."
Such a measure "would be counter-productive, would lead to greater tension in the region," said Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin.
U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N. Samantha Power took issue with the veto.
"Why would Russia vote to deny recognition of the Srebrenica genocide? Today’s vote mattered. It mattered hugely to the families of the victims of the Srebrenica genocide. Russia’s veto is heartbreaking for those families and it is a further stain on this Council’s record," she said.