Everything is ready for the marking of the 24th anniversary of the genocide against Bosniaks in Srebrenica in July 1995.
Green coffins with the names of victims of genocide committed in Srebrenica in July 1995 are ready to be buried in the collective funeral on July 11th this year in the Srebrenica Memorial Center – Potocari.
At the Memorial Center in Potocari this year, the remains of 33 victims of genocide committed in July 1995 on the UN-protected zone residents in Srebrenica will be buried.
The remains were moved from the Commemorative Center in Tuzla to JKP “Gradska groblja” Visoko, where they will be transported to Potocari on July 9th.
On the black panel on green coffins, the names of fathers and sons were written.
The youngest victim to be buried in Potocari this year is Osman Cvrk, born in 1979. At the moment the murder he was minor, only 16 years old. In the green coffin of the underage Osman, his remains were found at several different locations.
Chairman of the Organizing Committee Hamdija Fejzić said that they had done everything they were responsible for.
“We are ready for the funeral and commemoration. There is no problem with the security aspect. There are technical details and things that will be addressed in the coming days. Certain activities start in the coming days,” Fejzić said.
About six thousand participants of the Peace Mach are expected this year as well. The participants will be traveling around a hundred kilometers.
The Srebrenica massacre, also known as the Srebrenica genocide was the July 1995 massacre of more than 8,000 Bosniaks, mainly men and boys, in and around the town of Srebrenica during the Bosnian War.
The killings were perpetrated by units of the Bosnian Serb Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) under the command of Ratko Mladic.
The Scorpions, a paramilitary unit from Serbia, who had been part of the Serbian Interior Ministry until 1991, also participated in the massacre.
In April 1993 the United Nations (UN) had declared the besieged enclave of Srebrenica—in the Drina Valley of northeastern Bosnia—a “safe area” under UN protection.
However, the UN failed to both demilitarize the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) within Srebrenica and force the withdrawal of the VRS surrounding Srebrenica.
UNPROFOR’s 370 Dutchbat soldiers in Srebrenica did not prevent the town’s capture by the VRS—nor the subsequent genocide.