Potočari - The Srebrenica Memorial Center

Potočari - The Srebrenica Memorial Center

Potočari - a small village 5 km north of Srebrenica. On 12-13 July 1995, one of the darkest chapters of modern European history unfolded here.

Today Potočari is a memorial center with a cemetery holding 6,671 buried victims and a wall bearing 8,372 names.

📍 What happened in Potočari?

11 July 1995 - The fall of Srebrenica

• The VRS (Army of Republika Srpska) enters the town without resistance
• 25,000-30,000 civilians (women, children, the elderly) flee toward the UN base in Potočari
• Dutchbat (the Dutch UN battalion) - 400 soldiers at the base

12 July 1995 - The separation

• Morning: VRS soldiers arrive in Potočari
• General Ratko Mladić personally present, filmed on video cameras
• The VRS systematically separates men and boys from the women
• Age: 12-77 years (all who could walk)
• Dutchbat watches passively - does not intervene

The buses

• Women and children packed onto buses → Kladanj (territory under the control of the ARBiH)
• Men taken to warehouses, schools, factories
• 13-22 July - mass executions at 20+ locations

🎥 Video evidence - UN cameras

UN cameras filmed the separation:

• 12 July, 10:00 - General Mladić arrives in Potočari
• Mladić on video: "Do not be afraid. No one will harm you."
• The same day the separation of the men begins
• The video shows: VRS soldiers pulling men out of the crowd, hands behind their heads
• Dutchbat soldiers stand aside - they do not react

The video as evidence at the ICTY:

• Used in the trials of Mladić, Karadžić, and 50+ other defendants
• Shows systematic organization - not spontaneous violence

👥 Testimonies of survivors

Hatidža Mehmedović - "Mother of Srebrenica"

"On the morning of 12 July we were in Potočari. I saw them take away my son Azim (21 years old) and my husband Alija (45). They told me: 'Don't worry, it's just registration.' I never saw them again. I found them in a mass grave in 2007 - DNA identification. I buried them on 11 July 2007 in Potočari."

Camila Omanović - survivor

"I was 14 years old. They separated my father, my brother (17) and my uncle. My mother was screaming, begging, holding on to my brother. A VRS soldier struck my mother with a rifle butt. My brother said: 'Mama, don't, everything will be all right.' It was not all right. All three were killed. I found them in 2003, 2005, 2009. In three different graves."

Hasan Nuhanović - UN interpreter

Hasan worked as an interpreter for Dutchbat. On 13 July the VRS demanded that all local staff leave the UN base:

"I begged the Dutch soldiers to protect my family. They said: 'We're sorry, they have to leave the base.' My father (65), mother (60) and brother (19) were taken away. All were killed. I found them in 2003-2007. I threw them out of the base because I obeyed the UN order. I live with that every day."

Hasan later sued the Netherlands. In 2019 a Dutch court ruled that Dutchbat was partially responsible.

🏛️ The Memorial Center - Today

Opening: 20 September 2003 (Bill Clinton present)

The cemetery:

• 6,671 buried (as of 11 July 2024)
• Every year on 11 July - commemoration and new burials
• White gravestones with green inscriptions (Islamic style)
• Each gravestone contains: name, date of birth, "11.07.1995" (for all)

The wall of names:

• 8,372 names engraved in marble
• The list is final - based on ICMP DNA identification and testimonies

Gallery/Museum:

• Photographs of the victims
• Personal belongings found in the graves
• Video material (UN cameras, VRS propaganda)
• ICTY documentation
• Rooms with personal stories ("Memory Rooms")

Visits by senior officials:

• 2003 - Bill Clinton (former US President)
• 2009 - Barack Obama (US Vice President at the time)
• 2015 - Angela Merkel (German Chancellor)
• 2015 - Pope Francis
• 2018 - Emmanuel Macron (French President)

📅 11 July - Day of remembrance

Every year:

• Tens of thousands of people come
• Commemoration: reading of the names, prayer
• Burial of newly identified victims (DNA analysis takes 30 years)
• 2024 - 13 new victims buried (6,671 in total)

Example: 11 July 2020:

• 9 new victims buried
• Youngest: 16 years old (identified 25 years after the killing)
• Oldest: 83 years old
• Because of COVID-19 - a limited number of visitors (normally 50,000+)

🧬 DNA identification - The process

ICMP (International Commission on Missing Persons):

1. Exhumation of mass graves
2. DNA sample from the bones
3. Comparison with DNA samples from families (blood relatives)
4. Identification (can take years - secondary graves, scattered remains)
5. Notification of the family
6. Burial in Potočari (11 July)

The problem - Secondary graves:

• In October-November 1995 the VRS moved bodies from the primary graves
• Reason: Concealing evidence (NATO satellite imagery had revealed the primary graves)
• Result: Bodies scattered across 80+ secondary graves
• One person may be in 3-4 different graves (head in one place, arms in another)

Statistics:

• 8,372 victims in total
• 7,000+ identified (ICMP, 2024)
• 6,671 buried in Potočari
• ~300 identified but buried elsewhere (at the families' wishes)
• ~1,300 still being searched for or not identified

🌍 "Mothers of Srebrenica"

The organization founded in 2001:

• Women who lost husbands, sons, brothers
• Goal: Remembrance, justice, preventing genocide denial
• Led by: Munira Subašić, Hatidža Mehmedović, Fadila Memišević

Activities:

• Pressure on the authorities to arrest the perpetrators
• Testifying at the ICTY
• Organizing commemorations
• Fighting against genocide denial
• 2022 - Petition to the UN: "Global Day of Remembrance for Srebrenica"

📖 Sources

• Srebrenica Memorial Center - Official Records
• ICMP - DNA Identification Reports
• ICTY - Video Evidence (Dutchbat Footage)
• UN Report - "The Fall of Srebrenica" (1999)
• Mothers of Srebrenica - Testimonies
• Hasan Nuhanović - "Under the UN Flag" (book, 2007)
• BBC Documentary - "A Cry from the Grave" (1999)

💬 Quote

"Potočari is a symbol of the failure of the international community. 400 UN soldiers stood by and watched 8,000 people being led away to their deaths. We must never again allow that to happen."

— Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General (2009), speech in Potočari