Instead of gathering in peaceful protests, Bosnian miners marked the Miners' Day on Wednesday by visiting the Potocari Memorial Centre and paying their respects to the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.

To honour the victims, the miners also donated a statue of a Husino miner, the symbol of resistance and struggle, to the centre.

“We are not giving it to anyone because that is the symbol of miners that we gifted along with a donation,” said one of the miners Zuhdija Tokic.

“I would like to invite all those capable of helping us to invest in mines, because Bosnia and Herzegovina is not so powerful country to give up on coal so suddenly and turn to renewable sources of energy. It is important to invest in mines so we can overcome current situation that is present not only here but in the whole world, because we see that coal is unique when it comes to electricity production,” he added.

#Bosnia miners marking the Miners’ Day for the first time by honouring the victims of #Srebrenica genocide at the Potocari Memorial Centre https://t.co/92Cpw7DbGv

— N1english (@N1info) December 21, 2022

The unions of miners decided to mark this day at the Potocari memorial for the first time, conveying a message that “what had happened in Srebrenica must not happen again, anywhere.”

They also said that there are less and less of those willing to do this job, due to all the uncertainties including the salaries.

“There is no perspective here, citizens only see miners in the streets figthing for their rights and who would then decide to take this job and go to mines if they need to think every day whether they are getting paid or not,” Tokic stressed.