The Peace March processional, featuring over 6,300 people, reached Križićevo, where they had breakfast with refreshments and fruit. Among the ones who embarked on the “Path of Death” is also Enes Hamidović. In 1995, Hamidović welcomed those who broke through to the free territory. He will forever remember those harrowing sights, he told N1.
“Those were very difficult moments. People were exhausted, covered in blood, and barefoot. During the breakthrough, there were times when people were unaware that they had reached the free territory. They faced two or three barriers before reaching our territory. Their compass was a mosque, but they taught they were in Karakaj. They were dazed and delirious from the poison and something else. We had to approach them to let them know we were from Tuzla, and that we were the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We would give them Drina cigarettes to prove we weren’t members of the VRS (Army of Republika Srpska),” recalled Hamidović in an interview with N1.
Among the survivors were those who were severely wounded. They were in a difficult psychological state, not to mention the physical. They ran into anti-aircraft guns along the way, and many lost their lives. I am a living witness to that. We guided them to the easier route using our voices, warning them not to move towards Panduri, since there were strong enemy forces,” he said.
He also mentioned Mevludin Orić, who survived school execution in Orahovica and who is today a Peace March participant. A large number of civilians were murdered then, and many, Hamidović said, suffocated in that small area. The rest were brought to the location where the Peace March is passing today – Križevići and Streljani.
Today, their children are walking these paths of death, paying tribute to them in this way.
“When I see the children of veterans participating in a Peace March that once was a Death March, they are not aware of what their parents have gone through. Today, the route is somewhat cleared, but this road did not exist back then,” he said.
Peace March participants are headed towards the Liplje camp, where they will spend the night, and in the early morning hours, they will continue towards Potočari, N1 writes.
