Numerous places of the most massive suffering in our country have never been marked. The surviving victims have been trying for years to mark certain locations with a monument that would serve as a reminder of the camps, suffering and mass graves. That it is unlikely that he will get any of this is evidenced by an example from the area around Zvornik. On July 14, 1995, more than a thousand victims of the genocide in Srebrenica were detained in the Ročevići Elementary School near Zvornik. On July 15, 1995, they were taken from school to the bank of the Drina River in Kozluk, where they were shot. No one survived. In that area, a few years ago, two mass graves were found, from which around 400 victims of genocide were exhumed. Not only has this location never been marked, but the construction of a beach is planned in its vicinity, which was initiated by the association of citizens of the Kozluk region.
Behind the beach construction project in Kozluk is the local Association “Nova Svjetlost”. Why did they choose a location for the future beach that is located in the immediate vicinity of the execution ground of the murdered Srebrenica Bosniaks, where two mass graves were found?
“We don’t have access to the Drina. We created a conceptual solution for the beach,” says Mirsad Terzić, president of the Citizens’ Association Nova Svjetlost.
The Vice-President of the New Light Assembly, Hasan Hadžić, states that this was the only possibility on the 7-8 kilometers of the coast of this region.
The beach is planned to border the location where the mass graves were found.
“The border is from the river Sipulja and 30-40 meters to the secondary grave,” says Terzić.
The construction of the beach is planned at a location that is in the immediate vicinity of the Srebrenica Bosniak killing ground and the mass graves where the victims of the Srebrenica genocide were found. The exhumation process was painful and shocking for the families of Srebrenica Bosniaks. On July 14, 1995, members of the Republika Srpska Army detained more than a thousand victims of the genocide in the Ročević Elementary School, who were transported the next day to this location next to the Drina River in Kozluk, where they were shot. No one survived the shooting.
“I think 55 bodies were taken out of one secondary grave. Of these, 15 were complete bodies, and the rest were incomplete bodies. The second mass grave was one 40 meters up in the wilderness, in the forest. And that’s where everything is broken,” adds Terzić.
Genocide survivors condemn the construction of a beach in the immediate vicinity of the execution site. The women of Srebrenica were shocked by such information, which they learned during this year’s visit to the execution site in Kozluk.
“We were shocked when we saw it. Whether they were close by a meter or two or right there – it’s the same for me. But it’s a shame to do that anyway. And we doubt that it is also on that one – because the bones are scattered”, says Nura Begović, president of the Srebrenica Women’s Association.
The President of the Majlis of the Islamic Community of Zvornik, Mustafa Muharemović, reminds us that this is the place where there was a mass grave: “The Drina took away a lot of bodies, the banks of the Drina are quite bloody and that is why I say – it is very difficult to understand such an initiative”.
In the Association Nova svjetlost they defend their idea, and from the Association of Women of Srebrenica they demand that the works be stopped immediately.
“Why shouldn’t there be life here that won’t insult it?” asks Hadžić.
Begović says: “It’s really shameful – to build a beach.” And we know what a beach is. Simply, from the legal side, to take steps to stop the works and to ban and protect such places”.
That is why the Women of Srebrenica call on the authorities of BiH and the Office of the High Representative to react urgently and stop the construction of the beach, because they believe that it is inappropriate for it to be in the immediate vicinity of the execution ground of the victims of genocide.
