Peace march kicks off in Bosnia to honor victims of Srebrenica genocide

BELGRADE, Serbia 

A three-day peace march began Monday in Bosnia and Herzegovina to mark the 29th year of the Srebrenica genocide. 

For years, thousands of people from all over the world have come annually to take part in the event, honoring the more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys killed by Serb forces near the town in 1995.

This year, more than 5,000 people are participating in the march for three days, beginning in the town of Nezuk and spending the nights in designated areas along the route.

The march is set to conclude at a cemetery in Potocari, a village in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina, northwest of Srebrenica, where a funeral prayer and burial ceremony will be held for 30 newly identified victims. This year's funerals will see the number of burials at the cemetery rise to 6,765.

Since 2005, thousands of people have attended the "Mars Mira" (Peace March) following the same route used by Bosniaks when they were fleeing the Srebrenica genocide.

Suljo Cakanovic, chairman of the "Peace March" subcommittee, said the march includes participants from Türkiye, Iran, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Finland, Denmark, France, and the Netherlands.

A participant Nejla Hodzic said her father was among those who managed to survive the genocide in Srebrenica and that she is here to honor the victims who could not escape the genocide.

Mustafa Ergun, who came from Istanbul, said they are participating in this march with approximately 100 people from Türkiye.

Turkish Ambassador Sadık Babur Girgin also joined the march.

Earlier on Saturday, the "Vukovar-Srebrenica Marathon" began in Croatia's capital Zagreb to honor the victims of the Serb forces' attack on Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The participants will proceed to Srebrenica from the Ovcara Memorial Cemetery in Vukovar, where a massacre occurred in eastern Croatia in 1991, and will arrive at the Potocari Memorial Cemetery on Sunday after a 227-kilometer (141-mile) journey.

- Srebrenica genocide

The UN Security Council declared Srebrenica a "safe area" in the spring of 1993. However, Serb troops led by Gen. Ratko Mladic — who was later found guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide — overran the UN zone.

Dutch troops responsible for protecting people in the UN zone failed to act when Serb forces occupied it on July 11, killing 2,000 men and boys in a single day.

About 15,000 Bosniaks fled to the surrounding mountains, but Serb troops hunted them down and killed 6,000 more people.

Serbs who allowed women and children to reach the region controlled by Bosnian soldiers massacred at least 8,372 Bosnian men in forest areas, factories and warehouses. The murdered Bosnians were buried in mass graves.

The bodies of genocide victims were discovered in 570 different locations across the country, 77 of which were mass graves.

In 2007, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that genocide was committed in Srebrenica.

During the efforts to find the missing after the war, victims whose bodies were found in mass graves are buried in a ceremony held at Potocari Memorial Cemetery every year on July 11, after identification.

While 6,751 victims have been buried in Potocari Memorial Cemetery to date, 250 victims have been buried in local cemeteries at the request of their families. More than a thousand victims of the Srebrenica genocide have not been found.

On June 8, 2021, UN tribunal judges upheld a verdict sentencing Mladic to life in prison for the genocide, persecution, crimes against humanity, extermination, and other war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On this year’s anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, 14 more genocide victims who have been identified and approved by their families will be buried in the Potocari Memorial Cemetery.