Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism – The “March of Peace” to remember the 1995 Srebrenica massacre proceeds through Nezuk, Bosnia
The annual 100-kilometre march retraces a route taken by thousands of men and boys from the Bosniak ethnic group, made up primarily of Muslims, who were slaughtered as they tried to flee Srebrenica after it was captured by Bosnian Serb forces late in the 1992-95 war.
The march is part of several events preceding the actual date commemorating the massacre on July 11.
Nearly 4,000 people joined this year’s march, according to organisers. The event comes as ethnic tensions in Bosnia still persist with Bosnian Serbs continuing to push for more independence and their open calls for separation.
“I come here to remember my brother and my friends, war comrades, who perished here,” said Resid Dervisevic, who was among those who marched back in 1995. “I believe it is my obligation, our obligation to do this, to nurture and guard (our memories).”
Osman Salkic, another Srebrenica survivor, said “feelings are mixed when you come here, to this place, when you know how people were lying (dead) here in 1995 and what the situation is like today.”
The War in Bosnia erupted in 1992 after the former Yugoslavia broke up and Bosnian Serbs launched a rebellion and a land grab to form their own state and join Serbia. More than 100,000 people died before the war ended in 1995.
