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

By Talha Ozturk

BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) — A three-day peace march began Saturday in Bosnia and Herzegovina to mark the 28th 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 at the hands of Serb forces near the town in 1995.

More than 3,000 participants will march for three days this year, starting in the town of Nezuk and spending the nights in designated areas along the route.

The march is expected to conclude at a cemetery in Potocari, a village in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina, northwest of Srebrenica. There, 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 6,751.

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.

Also on Thursday, the "Vukovar-Srebrenica Marathon" started from Croatia's capital Zagreb to commemorate 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 took place in eastern Croatia in 1991, and will reach the Potocari Memorial Cemetery on Sunday after a 227-kilometer (141-mile) journey.

- Srebrenica genocide

In July 1995, Srebrenica was besieged by Serb forces who were trying to wrest territory from Bosnian Muslims and Croats to form a state.

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 failed to act as Serb forces occupied the area, killing 2,000 men and boys in a single day on July 11.

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

The bodies of the victims of the genocide were found in 570 different parts of the country.

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

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