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To fully understand 1990ies Bosnian Genocide and in the same time Srebrenica Genocide, there is no better way but to visit Eastern Bosnia, Srebrenica and Potočari Memorial Centre, and in the same time we can not only talk about Genocide events at just one micro-location (Srebrenica), but we have to put whole Eastern Bosnia into a context of the story.
Also, tour will uncover reasons behind the breakup of Yugoslavia with detailed story of worst Genocide in Europe since WW2.
During the tour you will have honor to visit local family and have lunch at their home while getting insight how local communities live today.
In the same time it will give answers to what Srebrenica is today, what it had been yesterday, and day before, but most of all what Srebrenica could become in a future, if denial as last phase of Genocide continues to happen.
Logistics
After the morning pickup around 8 am, you’ll spend two and a half hours on the road towards Srebrenica, where you’ll enjoy the beautiful scenery of Eastern Bosnian mountain regions, spiced up with detailed stories and important explanations behind the reasons of “Death of Yugoslavia”.
Understanding the role of Bosnia in the storm of 90’s is crucial for better understanding of Genocide in Srebrenica.
Genocide in Srebrenica is not an event which just took place in one narrow region or one town, in fact, it is an overall story of aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina, meaning Genocide events took place in wider area of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and especially of the region of East Bosnia, famously called Podrinje.
During your ride you will pass through several small towns and village where similar events have occurred, so chronological introduction and context is very important to fully understand the story that you’ll be exploring together that day.
The most important towns we are passing by, and which are related to the story of Srebrenica Genocide and 1990s ethnic cleansing:
Aljazzera America story on Srebrenica Genocide tour by Sarajevo Funky Tours
As soon you arrive to Memorial Centre at Potočari, you will have a chance to participate at locally guided tour and history class at Memorial Centre with official guide. Local guide in charge is survivor of those events and person whose experiences and stories are extremely important part of the tour. Memorial Cemetery where over 6500 people, in past years have been buried, before exhumed and identified, while some over 1500 victims are still missing, will be the most striking and mind blowing part of the visit.
Other important elements of the visit will take place at former Dutchbat UN base, where you’ll get a chance to see amazing newly open (Feb 2017) Museum of “Srebrenica Genocide – failure of international community”, understand importance of Memorial Room, see number of documentary movies, study chronological photo exhibitions, get stunned by graffiti remains, learn personal stories and stories of in-base mass grave and other elements of importance related to overall story of Srebrenica Genocide.
After some three hours of visiting Potočari Memorial Centre, it’s time for a short, 6 km ride to Srebrenica town. Visiting this small, historically rich, ‘silver town’ (Bosnian for silver is ‘Srebro’) will give better insight in the meaning of the “Worlds largest concentration camp during the 90’s”. Short walking tour for interesting photography and understanding what Srebrenica as small town really is.
The most important highlight of the day is lunch with the local family in Srebrenica. As the unemployment rate, Genocide denial and severe discrimination of predominantly Bosniak people in Srebrenica is frequent, Funky Tours has dedicated its work to empower local communities to be active participant of sustainable tourism.
People of Srebrenica love to share their personal stories, those beautiful ones, equally as the terrible ones. Don’t be afraid to listen, understand and actively support the sustainability of life in Srebrenica today.
Food is homemade with vegetarian options. Taste is totally beyond your imagination.
After you are done with lunch and Srebrenica town explorations, it is time to head back. Expect to be in Sarajevo around 6 or latest 7 pm.
Finally today, facts are known, as what exactly happened in Srebrenica is beyond any reasonable doubt. Simply, numerous trials at ICTY have proven it, but true reasons and role of the Dutchbat UN forces at Srebrenica, and overall UN role, is still very hard to fully uncover. The mission of this tour is to clear it out.
Denial, as last phase of Genocide and ethnic cleansing in Easter Bosnia still continues.
The Srebrenica massacre, also known as the Srebrenica genocide, refers to the July 1995 killing of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys, as well as the ethnic cleansing of another 25,000–30,000 refugees, in and around the town of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by units of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) under the command of General Ratko Mladić during the Bosnian War. A paramilitary unit from Serbia known as the Scorpions, officially part of the Serbian Interior Ministry until 1991, participated in the massacre. It is alleged that foreign volunteers including the Greek Volunteer Guard also participated.
In April 1993 the United Nations had declared the besieged enclave of Srebrenica in the Drina Valley of north-eastern Bosnia a “safe area” under UN protection. However in July 1995 the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), represented on the ground by a 400-strong contingent of armed Dutch peacekeepers, failed to prevent the town’s capture by the VRS and the subsequent massacre by the Bosnian Serbs of more than 8,000 civilians and prisoners, mostly men and boys.
The Srebrenica massacre is the largest mass murder in Europe since World War II. In 2004, in a unanimous ruling on the “Prosecutor v. Krstić” case, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), located in The Hague, ruled that the massacre of the enclave’s male inhabitants, accompanied by the forcible transfer of all of the women, children and elderly, constituted a crime of genocide. Theodor Meron, the presiding judge, stated:
By seeking to eliminate a part of the Bosnian Muslims, the Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide. They targeted for extinction the 40,000 Bosnian Muslims living in Srebrenica, a group which was emblematic of the Bosnian Muslims in general. They stripped all the male Muslim prisoners, military and civilian, elderly and young, of their personal belongings and identification, and deliberately and methodically killed them solely on the basis of their identity.
In February 2007 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concurred with the ICTY judgement that the atrocities committed at Srebrenica constituted a genocide, stating:
The Court concludes that the acts committed at Srebrenica falling within Article II (a) and (b) of the Convention were committed with the specific intent to destroy in part the group of the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina as such; and accordingly that these were acts of genocide, committed by members of the VRS in and around Srebrenica from about 13 July 1995.
The ICJ also ruled that Serbia “has violated the obligation to prevent genocide”, and that Serbia was to cooperate fully with the ICTY including the transfer of individuals accused of genocide to the ICTY. Ratko Mladić has been accused by the ICTY but still remains at large and is suspected of hiding in Serbia or in the entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina called the Republic of Srpska.
The majority of those killed were adult men and teenage boys but the victims included boys aged under 15, men over the age of 65 and even reportedly babies. The Preliminary List of People Missing or Killed in Srebrenica compiled by the Bosnian Federal Commission of Missing Persons contains 8,373 names, some 500 of them under 18, and includes several dozen women and girls. As of March 2010, 6414 genocide victims have been identified through DNA analysis of body parts recovered from mass graves and 3,647 victims have been buried at the Memorial Centre of Potočari.
In 2005, in a message to the tenth anniversary commemoration of the genocide, the Secretary-General of the United Nations described Srebrenica as the worst crime on European soil since the Second World War, and while noting that great nations had failed to respond and that blame lay first and foremost with those who planned and carried out the massacre and those who assisted and harboured them, acknowledged that the UN itself had made serious errors of judgement and the tragedy of Srebrenica would haunt the UN’s history forever.
Serbia and Montenegro was cleared of direct responsibility for or complicity in the massacre, but was found responsible for not doing enough to prevent the massacre and not prosecuting the responsible, in breach of the Genocide Convention. The Preliminary List of People Missing or Killed in Srebrenica compiled by the Bosnian Federal Commission of Missing Persons contains 8,373 names. As of July 2012, 6,838 genocide victims have been identified through DNA analysis of body parts recovered from mass graves; as of July 2013, 6,066 victims have been buried at the Memorial Centre of Potočari. Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić officially apologized for the massacre, although he stopped short of calling it genocide.
In 2013 and 2014, the Netherlands was found liable in its own supreme court and in the Hague district court of failing in its duty to prevent more than 300 of the deaths.
On 8 July 2015, Russia, at the request of the Republika Srpska and Serbia, vetoed a UN resolution condemning the Srebrenica massacre as genocide. Serbia called the resolution “anti-Serb”, while European and U.S. governments affirmed that the crimes were genocide. On 9 July 2015, both the European Parliament (EP) and the U.S. Congress adopted resolutions reaffirming the description of the crime as genocide.
On 22 November 2017, Ratko Mladić was convicted of various crimes at the United Nations’ tribunal, including genocide for his role at Srebrenica. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and as well for Radovan Karadžić in 2019.
What Do I Need to Bring?
Free Srebrenica Tour on 11th of July
ON JULY 11th EVERY YEAR Funky Tours Team IS OFFERING SREBRENICA TOUR FREE OF CHARGE FOR ANYONE WHO APPLIES. All are invited but please note, number of seats are limited.
July 11th is Memorial Day in Bosnia and Herzegovina and we are happy to contribute on this day by offering this experience to anyone interested without any costs at all. We have limited number of seats.
We believe spreading awareness of Srebrenica Genocide is way of eliminating possibility that such unfortunate event ever happens again. Thank you for your interest.
Guida preparatissima, di una gentilezza sconfinata. Sono davvero bravi, disponibili ad ogni esigenza e soprattutto pieni di passione.
Validissimi!
A wonderful and very organized company, I would recommend a thousand percent. I contacted them on the email and the response was swift and wonderful, and the receptionist was friendly and very active.
I booked a tour with them to visit Srebrenica. The tour was meticulously organized, and it was at the exact time.
Ms Arena the guide was surprisingly nice and helpful, and a wonderful and kind person, I talked to her at length on the road about life in Bosnia and Herzegovina.The driver was nice and this, and the van was modern and new type of Mercedes.
When we reached the exhibition of the massacre, we watched an introductory film for 15 minutes, and one of the young men who survived the massacre spoke to us, as he was a baby at the time of the massacre, and a number of his family members were eliminated in this massacre. Then I wandered to the exhibition, which explained everything that happened accurately and in detail. The exhibition consists of two floors, and includes dozens of rooms, that it displays the massacre in the smallest details.
After I left the exhibition, there was a photo exhibition during the war, the victims of the massacre, and the holdings that were with them during the massacre. Then I went to the monument to the victims of the massacre, and all the names of the victims were written in very broad stone.
I had stayed alone until he briefed everything in detailed, and group members had gone for lunch, and when they were back, the great guide Ms Arens had brought me a great meal for free, she was a wonderful human, and she gave me a bottle of water.
MS Arena the guide took me to the mosque on the way back when I asked her to pray, And she gave me a gift, She is an amazing person.
It was a special experience, The visit to the site of the massacre and the exhibition was very emotional,we must know this so that we can stop the wars and massacres around the world.
Extremely important tour, necessary for all visitors to the region.
Did the day trip with Almir and it was absolutely fantastic. An event I felt I already understood quite a bit about but really was just beginning to understand. I learned and felt so much on this tour. I think this trip is absolutely necessary for anyone and everyone visiting Bosnia, no matter background, age, interest, etc.
Funky Tours took great care, can’t recommend this tour enough.
A must-do trip from Sarajevo
Srebrenica is a site that is very special and without doubt a must see.
The guide Almir was outstanding – informative and caring. He also drove us impressively safely and attentively for hours on an ice road… 100% recommend!
We had some really memorable experiences with Sarajevo Funky Tours. We learned so much on both of our tours.
Hope to come back to Sarajevo and use them again.
