From Anniversary to Anniversary

17 July 2008  As newly identified victims are buried and another annual genocide commemoration takes place, Potocari residents say that living together is still possible.

By Erna Mackic and Merima Husejnovic in Srebrenica and Bratunac

Families of victims, and local and international officials have left Potocari after observing the 13^th anniversary of the killing of Bosniaks there, but the life of the community continues – and it is marked by deep sorrow and an abiding wish among many residents to rebuild a common life.


On July 11 another 308 identified genocide victims, killed after the fall of the UN protected Srebrenica “safe area”, were buried at Potocari.


“In general, you can see that there is life in Potocari when the commemorations take place, like today. However, tomorrow you will only be able to meet cats and dogs and very few people in the street,” said Sukrija Malic, who returned in 2005. Since then he has been trying to build a new life with his Bosniak and Serb neighbours.


Like many other Potocari residents interviewed by BIRN`s Justice Report Malic did not attend this year's commemoration. People say they are busy and routinely cite the amount of work that has to be done at this time of year.


Acim Andric has additional reasons for never having visited the Memorial Center in Potocari, despite the fact that he lives just a few minutes’ walk from it.


“Why should I go? I feel uncomfortable. I belong to a different ethnic group and I feel guilty for all the things that were done by all parties to the conflict,” Andric said.

Potocari, 11.07.2008.

Unlike Andric, the members of the Odisej youth association from Bratunac, a few kilometers from Potocari, do not hesitate when it comes to paying their respects to the Srebrenica genocide victims. But, they do not do this on July 11 because they are afraid of the reaction of other Bratunac residents, most of whom visit local bathing spots on July 11 in order to “avoid the hustle” caused by the commemoration.

Correct Relations

On July 11, 1995 thousands of women and children were taken from Srebrenica by bus after the area was captured by Serb troops; Bosniak men were rounded up and in the course of the following days around 8,000 were killed. To date, the remains of 3,215 victims have been identified and buried at Potocari.


Responding to a legal suit filed by Bosnia and Herzegovina against Serbia and Montenegro, the International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled that genocide was committed in Srebrenica in 1995.


To date, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has sentenced Vidoje Blagojevic to 15 years, Dragan Jokic to nine years, Radislav Krstic to 35 years, Momir Nikolic to 20 years and Dragan Obrenovic to 17 years in prison for their role in the massacre. The trials of Ljubisa Beara, Ljubomir Borovcanin, Drago Nikolic, Vinko Pandurevic, Vujadin Popovic, Radivoje Miletic and Milan Gvero are still underway.


The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has still to reach verdicts related to the genocide in Srebrenica. Two trials against 12 indictees are underway. Another trial, against four former military policemen charged with crimes against humanity committed in the Vuk Karadzic School in Bratunac, is also ongoing. A large number of Bosniaks were killed at the school in July 1995.


Shortly after the war ended, the associations of victims from Srebrenica and Zepa launched an initiative to establish a foundation and memorial center where the remains of victims would be buried. Members of the associations insisted on having the center built in the former base of the UN Battalion in Potocari, where Srebrenica residents had sought shelter in 1995.


Under the eyes of the UN Dutch Battalion, men were separated from women, children and old people and taken away. Women, children and the elderly were then taken on buses to territory controlled by the Bosnian Army.


The foundation and memorial center would not have been set up without the help of the international community. In 2000 the then High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Wolfgang Petritch, issued a Decision ordering the establishment of the memorial center and designating an area of 44,000 square meters, including existing buildings, to be used for the center and a museum.


A year later the OHR established the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Center Foundation, with the aim of collecting and allocating resources for building and maintaining the memorial and cemetery.


After this, the Foundation began collecting money. The bulk of donations were made by foreign governments, with the US contributing most. Following extensive negotiations, the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina allocated 250,000 Euros from its budget, while 70,000 Euros was collected from citizens through individual donations. The cost of the entire project was six million Euros.

Potocari, 11.07.2008.

The first mass funeral took place in March 2003, when the remains of 600 victims were buried; the cemetery and memorial center were officially opened in September of the same year when 107 victims were buried. Former US President Bill Clinton was present at this ceremony.


For many Bosniaks the building and opening of the memorial center meant that the return process could begin. Sukrija Malic was one of the returnees.


“My two brothers, five nephews, three uncles and two aunts were killed,” Malic said. “These are just members of my closest family. In total, seventeen members of my family were killed. My brothers have never been found. One can never forget what happened. All this will be remembered, but we have to move on.”


Despite everything, Malic believes that Bosniaks and Serbs can live together in Potocari. Acim Andric works in Malic’s shop, just five minutes from the Memorial Center. Malic points out that Andric had no other employment opportunities.


Like Acim, Vida Matic from Bratunac works in a restaurant in Potocari that is owned by a Bosniak.


“It is really sad that so many people died. It does not matter who they were. Many things happened on all sides, but I would like us to live together,” Matic said.


Her boss Dzevad Tuljkovic, who survived the fall of Srebrenica and returned to Potocari in 2003, says that he spends his time with his Serb neighbours because he thinks they should all move on, together.


“They want to correct what was done by people who committed genocide in their name,” Tuljkovic said, adding that the communities “have very correct relations” with each other.


Unlike Tuljkovic, Nermina Smajlovic, who lives just a few meters away, said her Serb neighbours do not visit her, although they do greet each other when they meet in the street.


“We greet each other, but that is all we say. What else should they tell us? They killed us and they need not say anything more,” Smajlovic said, adding that her husband was killed in 1995. His body was found 11 years later.


Smajlovic returned to Potocari a year ago, because she “wished for her home”. She said she does not regret her decision to come back, and she points out that her three sons make friends irrespective of ethnicity.

A day when there was no courage

Nineteen-year-old Milan Vilotic from Bratunac said he does not care what ethnic group his peers belong to. He and his friends, who are members of the Odisej NGO, promote the process of facing up to the past. Yet Vilotic has never visited the Memorial Center, though he acknowledged that it “would be nice” to go there and pay his respects to the Srebrenica victims.


“There is nothing that attracts me to that place. I guess this is because those are not my people,” Vilotic said, adding that all those who committed crimes should be held responsible for what they did.


Other members of Odisej have organized visits to the memorial center, but not on the July 11 anniversary.


“For a long time we have been involved in the process of facing up to the past, but I still do not have enough courage to visit Potocari on that particular day,” said Cedomir Glavas, president of Odisej. “I am a bit afraid. It may be better for me to stay here on that day and then continue working on this issue for the rest of the year. We are not afraid of Bosniaks. We are afraid of local gangsters. All those people come here by bus and then they leave. We have to stay here.”

Potocari, 11.07.2008.

However, his colleague Vladimir Gataric said that with the passage of time fewer and fewer incidents occur on July 11. He said “nobody paid attention” to the visitors this year, and that it looked like an ordinary traffic jam in the town.


Since the first mass funeral in 2003 only one serious incident has been recorded, when explosives were planted below a bridge. Police found the explosives on time and removed them.


Unlike Potocari, where tens of thousands of mourners gathered on July 11 this year, Bratunac was empty. Gataric and Glavas say that most citizens decided to go to the banks of the Drina River so as not to look at “the cars with rotating lights”.


“Many people told me they wanted to go to a barbecue and avoid the hustle,” Gataric said.


Among the few people we met in Bratunac was a woman who did not want to speak about the Srebrenica tragedy, saying it was a “gruesome subject” and noting that “each of us lost somebody” in the war.


Despite all this, life goes on in Srebrenica and Bratunac. Irrespective of their ethnic affiliation, residents are finding ways to deal with the past and many of them believe that living together is their only option for the future.


Erna Mackic and Merima Husejnovic are journalists with BIRN – Justice Report. erna@birn.eu.com, merima@birn.eu.com. Justice Report is an online weekly publication of BIRN.