Learn about Funky Tours, who we are, what we do and how we came to be! Explore our mission and vision and what kind of travel experience we strive for.
Learn about Funky Tours, who we are, what we do and how we came to be! Explore our mission and vision and what kind of travel experience we strive for.
Explore how Funky Tours is involved in humanitarian work and be part of our Giving Back philosophy.
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.
Guide
English speaking local-expert guide and driver. Guide in different language available on request.
Lunch
We shall have amazing homemade lunch with the local family in Srebrenica. In this way we empower local communities to be active participant of sustainable tourism. Vegetarian options available.
Free pickup on request
If you are staying in the old town of Sarajevo meet us at our office. If you are bit away from us, please let us know and we can organise advance pickup.
All Transfers
All tour transfers are provided by Funky Tours.
Taxes & Flexible Cancellation Policy
No hidden costs. VAT 17% included in the price. Cancel 1 day prior for full refund or change dates anytime.
Availability
Tour is available throughout the year.
Group Discounts
For bigger group bookings, discounts are available.
Online Payments
Pay safely online with a credit card. We accept payments for all types of credit cards.
Insurance
Travel insurance is not included. Please buy it at home country.
Guide Tipping
Tips are not included in the tour costs. If you receive excellent service, please consider tipping.
Private Tour
All tours are shared, unless specifically booked as private.
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.
Great tour, and Almir was an excellent knowledgeable guide – thank you! 🙂
This was an absolutely great and educational experience!
Almir who was our driver and tour guide was super knowledgeable about the history of the Srebrenica genocide and the Bosnian war overall, as well as the older history of Bosnia. Listening to him on our drive to and from, and during the day there was very enlightening.
The lunch with the family was great, though it felt a little rushed, because our host needed to head back to work. Really enjoyed this trip, and given it was just me and my wife, we technically had it private all for ourself. It was also great that we were picked up from our accommodation.
Funkytours is great and I would highly recommend this tour as well as all their other tours. Almir was top – thank you so much for an enlightening and educational trip!
Highly informative-A MUST BOOK!
I learned so much about the Bosnian War and the roll the international community played. We visited a museum that offered explanations and video accompaniment to further detail events. We then had an authentic Bosnian lunch made by a woman whose family survived the war. Followed by a visit to the memorial site for those that perished in the war.
Highly informative while also community building💗 loved this tour.
One of the most enriching experiences I have been on. A must see.
My partner and I had done a tour with Sarajevo Funky Tours before and were so impressed by the tour and Sarajevo decided we must come back. This time we did the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial tour.
This is without doubt one of the most interesting (and saddest) travelling experiences we had. Our tour guide was amazing. We had the honour of meeting some local people in Srebrenica who gave a very moving first hand account of some of their experiences. My partner and I felt it was very important to have this experience and share it with others. I can’t recommend this tour enough. Both the tour company and our guide did a superb job.
Now back home, I tell everyone I know – go to Bosnia, learn the history, meet the people and have the same wonderful experience we had. Sarajevo is a truly wonderful city to visit, friendly people, great food, wine, coffee surrounded by rich history (already thinking of our next trip back). Completely covid-19 safe as well.
Great way to see the country
I did 4 tours with them during my stay in Sarajevo: the Sarajevo Siege tour and the Herzegovina tour with Almir, and the Srebrenica tour and the Travnik&Jajce tour with Adnan.
I had a great time during all of the tours, they are a great way to see the highlights of the country without having to worry about transportation and planning, especially if you are limited on time like I was. Almir and Adnan were great guides, both with personal experience and stories from the war. Also, they were great drivers. Special mention to Adnan’s help, Deni, who was still during training as guide when I visited, he was great too.
Fantastic tour group. Took care of our every request. Highly recommended, friendly service, great tours!
