The German non profit organization Achen Network for Humanitarian Assistance and Intercultural Peace Work is organizing a marathon called Flame for Peace 2014, from Sarajevo to Achen on occassion of the commemoration of the 100 years since the start of WWI.
Flame of Peace will leave Sarajevo on 28 July, on the day in 1914 when the Austro Hungarians declared war on the Kingdom of Serbia, and will arrive in the German town of Achen with the marathon runners on 21 September on the World Day of Peace.
This is a unique European project that is supported by the President of the European Parliament Martin Sulc, B&H representative and player of VfB Stuttgart Vedad Ibišević and well known German journalist Gunter Wallraf.
On a track more than 2.700 kilometers, the marathon runners will visit in 56 days a number of places of great suffering of past wars such as Srebrenica, Loznica, Verdun and Huertgenwald (forest in Germany in which 12.000 US soldiers were killed).
The Flame of Peace will go along 13 B&H cities, and those are: Sarajevo, Ustikolina, Višegrad, Srebrenica, Zvornik, Tuzla, Doboj, Odžak, Derventa, Prnjavor, Banja Luka, Kozarac and Bosanska Dubica.
Along the banks of the Drina River the Flame of Peace will connect B&H and Serbia in the areas of Bajina Bašta and Loznica.
From Bosanska Dubica, the torch of the Flame of Peace will be transferred to neighboring Croatia, in Petrinja, where it will continue to other countries of the EU and Switzerland.
With this project, the German organizers wish to connect young people of the East and West in Europe. They call on young people from B&H, Serbia and Croatia to go together towards a brighter and better future in peace.
The project Flame for Peace is implemented under the sponsorship of Martin Sulc, President of the European Parliament.