Several thousand participants of the annual commemorative Peace March Nezuk-Potocari set off Friday morning for a three-day, 100-kilometre long walk in honouor of Srebrenica genocide victims and survivors.

According to organisers, four to five thousand participants are expected to take the path that the people of Srebrenica took in attempt to reach the free territories in the summer of 1995.

As this year's walk coincides with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, they will be able to attend the Eid prayer, which will be led by the Tuzla mufti.

The Peace March is planned arrive in Potocari, the Srebrenica Memorial Centre on July 10, a day before the mass funeral and commemoration for the genocide victims.

According to the plan, after walking 30 kilometers on the first day, the participants will reach the Liplje camp, where they will spend the night.

The journey will resume to the Kamenica site, also known as the ‘valley of mass graves’, and after 35 kilometers they should reach the village of Mravinjci. From Mravinjac on, the participants will continue towards Kamenica Hill, the place where the infamous ‘Bukva’ incident took place, where at least 1,000 Srebrenica residents were killed.

They will then continue through Bulji and end their journey at the Potocari Memorial Center on July 10.

The ‘Peace March’ is organised as a part of the commemoration on the anniversary of the genocide against Bosniaks in the UN safe zone of Srebrenica and for the survivors of the Srebrenica genocide.

This memorial event, which takes place in July every year, aims to build, improve and nurture the culture of remembrance of the genocide against the Bosniaks in Srebrenica and to prevent denial and relativisation of the crime of genocide.

The ‘Peace March’ in previous years, except for the past two years of the pandemic, saw the participation of 2,000 to more than 10,000 people from Bosnia and Herzegovina and other parts of the world.

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The remains of 50 victims of the genocide committed in 1995 in Srebrenica will be buried at the collective funeral on July 11 this year.

The youngest victim who will be buried this year is Salim Mustafic, born in 1979 in Tokoljaci near Srebrenica. He was 16 years old when he was killed in the summer of 1995. His remains were exhumed from the Liplja mass grave near Zvornik in 2006.

Apart from Salim, two more minors who were only 17 years old at the time of their death, Vahid Smajlovic (1978) and Elvir Muminovic (1978), will be buried this year.

The oldest victim who will be buried this year is Husejin Krdzic.

The Hasanovic twins will also find their final peace this year. Semir and Samir were only 20 years old when they were killed. They were born in 1975 in Prohici near Srebrenica. Their remains were exhumed from various mass graves discovered in the localities of Liplje and Kamenica.

This year, father and son, Hajdin and Sead Hukic, will be buried together. Hajdin (Zuhdo) Hukic was 53 years old at the time of his death, while his son was only 21 years old when he was killed.

All the victims who will be buried this year, with the exception of the nine victims who were exhumed from the mass grave at the Dobro Polje site near Kalinovik, which was discovered in June 2021, were exhumed from mass graves that were discovered during previous years, some of them even 1997 and 1999, such as Liplje, Pilica, then from the tombs discovered in 2001, 2004, 2006, 2011.

A number of victims were exhumed from mass graves that were found in Kamenica, the ‘valley of death’, during 2001, 2007, 2008. The remains of some victims were found in two or even three mass graves.

So far, 6,671 victims of the genocide in Srebrenica in 1995 have been buried in the cemetery of the Srebrenica Memorial Center – Potocari.