The association of citizens “Svjedoci svog vremena” (Witnesses of their time) which has organized the Srebrenica Peace March for the past 6 times, has organised the “Sarajevo-Nezuk-Potocari 2018” peace march, which had set off on Tuesday.
This year’s march from Sarajevo was attended by 38 Bosnian citizens from across the country who will walk 280 kilometres to Potocari.
In an earlier statement to the press, the organisers said they hope to contribute on strengthening of the feelings of unity, belonging, responsibility and connection and to pay tribute to the dead with this march. They also hope to contribute to preserving the memory of the events in Srebrenica and Potocari and never to allow genocide to take place again.
This year’s “Peace March Nezuk Potocari” is one of the main events in the marking of the Srebrenica genocide anniversary and the burial of Srebrenica Bosnjaks. The march is also one of the largest activities within this sad anniversary.
So far, more than 1,200 participants registered their attendance in the march, but the organisers said they expect more than 6,000 participants to join the march along the way.
This year’s collective burial will be performed for the mortal remains of 35 victims. This is not the final number, however, and the number of victims could increase, depending on the wishes of families who are still seeking the remains of their loved ones.
The Podrinje Identification Centre contains the remains of some 170 identified victims, but these are mostly incomplete remains and the families are still hoping that the rest of the remains will be found to complete the victims’ bodies.
So far, 6,575 genocide victims have been buried in the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Centre and around 1,000 victims are still missing.
The UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) ruled in 2004 that the massacre of the Srebrenica, the enclave which was declared the UN's safe zone in 1993, constituted a genocide. The ruling was upheld by the International Court of Justice in 2007.
