The remains of seven victims of the genocide committed in Srebrenica in July 1995 are ready for burial at a collective funeral that will be held on July 11 at the Srebrenica Memorial Center in Potočari. This year, the victims will also be buried next to their loved ones, so the father will find peace next to his son, the brother will be buried next to his brother, and the son will be buried next to the remains of his father.
The youngest victims to be buried this year are two young men who were only 19 years old at the time of their deaths. They are Senajid (Husejin) Avdić and Hariz (Ramiz) Mujić.
Both were killed in July 1995, and their final resting place was 30 years later. Avdić’s remains were exhumed in the Suljići area in October 2010, and were found on the surface of this site.
The remains of Hariz Mujić were also found on the surface of the terrain, unburied, during an exhumation carried out in March 2022 at the Baljkovica site, Zvornik, 27 years after his death.
The oldest victim to be buried is Fata (Huso) Bektić, who was 67 years old at the time of her death. She is also the only woman to find her final resting place this year in Potočari. Her remains were found 26 years after her death, during an exhumation carried out in June 2021 in Potočari.
The remains of the victims who will find their final resting place this year were found in graves that were discovered years ago at the sites of Liplje, Baljkovica, Suljići, and Kameničko brdo. In most cases, these are incomplete bodies, so some of the victims’ families will put one or two bones into the ground.
The remains of Hasib Omerović, who was 34 years old when he was killed, were exhumed in 1998, but the family, for precisely these reasons, due to the small number of skeletal parts found, has not yet found the strength to give consent for the burial of this victim.
This year, the following will be buried in Potočari: Senajid (Husein) Avdić (1976), Hariz (Ramiz) Mujić (1976), Fata (Huso) Bektić (1928), Hasib (Adem) Omerović (1961), Sejdalija (Alija) Alić (1961), Rifet (Mustafa) Gabeljić (1964) and Amir (Ibrahim) Mujčić (1964).
The Podrinje Identification Project (PiP) in Tuzla contains the remains of nine victims who have already been identified through DNA testing and by their families, but there is still no consent for their burial.
Despite the passage of time, families are having difficulty deciding on burial due to the incompleteness of the skeletons, and are therefore waiting for the discovery of other remains.
“Today we appeal to families who have identified their loved ones to still give their consent for the final burial of the victims, so that they still have time to make that decision before the collective funeral,” the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced.
The Podrinje identification project contains the remains of another 45 victims who have been identified using the DNA method, but the families have not officially identified them. The reason for this is the small number of skeletal remains that have been found and identified so far in relation to these victims.
