Remembering Srebrenica

Srebrenica, Serbian Republic

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Well we woke up VERY early to catch a bus to the town of Srebrenica, about four hours from Sarajevo. There is only one bus there and one bus back so our options were fairly limited. For anyone who doesn't know the story Srebrenica is a little town in the western part of Bosnia & Hercegovina. As of right now I believe it is actually claimed or considered to be part of the Serbian Republic but on a map it's in Bosnia & Hercegovina, confusing I know. Well during the war in the 90's Srebrenica was actually declared a United Nations safe area and was "protected" by U.N. troops. Despite the status as a U.N. safe area over 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men were massacred over a five day period in July of 1995 by the Serbian Army. The U.N. basically stood by and allowed this to happen. As of right now only about 2,000 of the bodies have been recovered and buried the rest are in mass graves yet to be discovered. Obviously there is ALOT more to it that that and it's quite complicated so I am just giving some basic facts. The anniversary and memorial day for the genocide of Srebrenica was on July 11, which we were hoping to be able to be present for. However, so many people showed up last year for the ten year memorial that it turned into a bit of a circus and so only family members were allowed there on that day and we wen the day after.

Memorial to the victims of the Srebrenica Massacre, Srebrenica, Serbian Republic

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We arrived in Srebrenica, a very tiny town that has seen better days, and expected the mood to be very somber. That, however, was not the case. We looked up towards the Serbian Orthodox Church and saw tons of people up there. As we walked up there it seemed to us to be almost a pro-Serb patriotic gathering, the absolute opposite of what we expected. People had t-shirts on celebrating the Serbian war leaders, there were flags, police and important men in suits and tinted out Audis. Again, we were about the only tourists there and too uncomfortable to ask anyone what was going on. After about an hour they all proceeded down to the culture center for some sort of program where they sang the Serbian anthem and gave speeches (of which we of course understood nothing).

After this we took a taxi to the site of the memorial built for the Bosnian Muslims that had been killed. The site is very moving and there is a huge plaque with the names of all of the murdered men, along with the graves of the bodies that have been recovered. There aren't really any other words to describe it but, knowing the full story of what happened at Srebrenica, it was very humbling and very sad.

Mourners at the Srebrenica Memorial, Srebrenica, Serbian Republic

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As we got back into town after almost being run over by the parade of sppeding black Audis and police heading out of town and we still had several hours before our bus left so we decided to grab some lunch in a little "cafe" run by a woman who's husband is from Srebrenica. Jasmine was very sweet and we talked with her for about an hour. We got up the courage to ask what had been going on at the Serbian Church and she told us that it was a memorial for a massacre that they said occured in January of 1992 to the Serbian people but it was basically a slap in the face and in very poor taste that they chose the day after the Srebrenica memorial to have it.

Jasmine then asked us if we had been up to the well yet. We of course had no idea what she was talking about. Apparently there is a well or spring at Srebrenica that was famous for it's healing properties, it's ability to make you beautiful, to keep you young etc. She said we must go visit it. Still haveing a couple hours to kill waiting for our one bus to leave we walked up ther to the "well" which was a small stream of water pouring over a rock. It didn't inspire to much confidence but we both reached over to taste it and experience the miraculous qualities it possessed. Yuck, probably the worst water I have ever tasted! We both spit it straight out however I'm still waiting for the parasite to show up in my body for trying it.

We finally made our way down to the bus stop where we got scolded by the ticket men for asking questions...and trying to buy tickets (which apparently they didn't feel like doing!) As we got on our way the bus got more and more full until the entire center was filled with standing people. Despite the fact that the driver went about 10 miles an hour we made it back to Sarajevo in about five hours after a very long and sad day. Sorry for the sad, depressing tone but it's an important part of history  for people to know about and remember.