Croatian bikers headed on Tuesday to Sarajevo and Srebrenica where they will for the ninth time join hundreds of other bikers from across the region to ride together in honour of the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.
About 25 bikers from Croatia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, Austria and Bosnia and Herzegovina have met up in front of the Islamic Centre in Zagreb and began their journey toward Bosnia.
They will join a large group of bikers in Sarajevo, where they will spend the night. Together they will then proceed toward Srebrenica to attend the commemoration and ceremonial burial for the newly identified victims on July 11.
More than 1,000 bikers from at least 12 countries are expected to attend the commemoration.
They will be joined by bikers from Slavonije, Osijek, Pozega, Slavonski Brod, Vukovar and other places in Croatia along the way.
The main organiser of the gathering is Fadil Osmicevic Handzar, a Zagreb-based biker who stems from Bosnia and fought in the Bosnian war.
“Our goal is to send the message that Srebrenica will never be forgotten and that it should never repeat in Europe or across the world, nor in Croatia and the Balkans,” he said.
Rasim ‘Skoro’ Perviz drove to the gathering from the Bosnian town of Cazin to join the bikers.
Another organiser of the event is an association of Bosniaks who fought in the war in Croatia. It is led by Hamdija Malic who called the Srebrenica genocide the biggest crime committed on European soil since WWII.
“About 25,000 Bosniaks fought in the war in Croatia, and about 1,100 of them were killed,” he explained.
