Although this is a topic that’s not specifically related my work at LSN BiH, I thought it would be something that my blog followers would be interested in reading about, especially in light of Radovan Karadzic’s recent arrest.

A few weeks ago, Iain Guest, the director of the Advocacy Project dropped by in Tuzla. He was getting ready to go to Srebrenica and Shweta Dewan, her supervisor from BOSFAM, Beba Hadzic, and her husband and I would accompany him. This was my second time going to Srebrenica.

During my first trip, Shweta and I attended the July 11th commemoration of the Srebrenica genocide. We went along with our wonderful friends who work for the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). They do the long, arduous and crucial task of uncovering mass graves and give them an identity. I have posted several pictures of the July 11th commemoration of the Srebrenica massacre below.

During our second trip, Iain had a specific purpose for visiting. The Advocacy Project is assisting the survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre to develop and promote a memorial quilt commemorating the victims. We went to visit some of the survivors to discuss these other related plans with them.

As we drove into Srebrenica, I realized that it is no longer a ghost town. Some families are slowly returning, yet it is still an eerie place full of many abandoned and bullet ridden homes. There is a nearby river there called the Drina which is right next to the Serbian border. When Srebrenica fell, this river was full of blood as many bodies were thrown into it.

Many of the victims also tried to flee to Tuzla which was considered free Bosnian territory but they were ambushed by Serbian troops on the way. In this town, graves seem to look down on you no matter where you are. You can read all about our Srebrenica trip on Iain’s blog:

http://iainguest.wordpress.com/2008/07/

Pictures of the July 11th Srebrenica Massacre Commemoration:

A statue dedicated to the women of Srebrenica in front of the notorious battery factory where the UN Dutch battalion set up its headquarters during the war. This was also the site where Bosnian Muslim or Bosniak men and boys over the age of 15 were slaughtered over the course of a few days. To date, 8,372 bodies have been accounted for.

Thousands of people are bused in to pay their respect to the dead, including Bosnians from the diaspora. Most of them returned for the commemoration once the remains of their loved ones were identified.

At the start of the ceremony, long rows of green-colored coffins were laid out at the graveyard. In total, 307 new bodies were discovered in mass graves and reburied here after a very long and difficult identification process.

The huge and emotionally distraught crowd looks on as the bodies are reburied at the cemetery in Potocari.

The coffins are surrounded by young women in black who stand by as prayers and songs are sung.

The procession continues.

The notorious battery factory where thousands of Bosnian Muslim men fled to during the war. They had hopes of being rescued due to the presence of the UN Dutch battalion (Dutchbat). However, it was soon taken over by Karadzic and Serbian forces who carried out the largest mass murder in Euope since WWII.

A crowd of imams and several journalists.

The memorial contained the pictures and stories of many Srebrenica victims, including an object that was found on the victim such as a letter that a man saved from his wife, or a pocket sized Koran that one man carried.