Donji Potočari
| Donji Potočari | |
|---|---|
| Village | |
  Donji Potočari | |
| Coordinates: 44°08′56.00″N 19°17′52.00″E / 44.1488889°N 19.2977778°ECoordinates: 44°08′56.00″N 19°17′52.00″E / 44.1488889°N 19.2977778°E | |
| Country | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| Entity | Republika Srpska |
| Municipality | Srebrenica |
Donji Potočari is a village in Republika Srpska, eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, 6 km north-west of Srebrenica. In the 1991 census it had 4,338 inhabitants, of whom 93% were Bosniaks and 7% were others, mainly Serbs.
Bosnian War
During the war in Bosnia the village was in the Srebrenica enclave. Along with all other places in the enclave its population swelled as it hosted refugees from neighboring parts of Bosnia. When Serb forces overran the enclave in July 1995 they carried out the Srebrenica Genocide, killing over 8,000 innocent Bosniak (Muslim) men and boys.
Post-war period
In October 2000 Wolfgang Petritsch, the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, declared that the land in Potočari would be turned into a memorial and cemetery for the victims of the genocide.[1] In May 2001, a foundation was established to oversee and finance construction of the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial. Two months later, around the time of the sixth anniversary of the massacre, a foundation stone was laid for the memorial in front of a crowd of 15,000 people. The first memorial was held in July 2002 with about 20,000 attendees. The first 600 victims were buried in the new cemetery in March 2003.
The main memorial and cemetery are located here. The biggest donation for the funding of the memorial and cemetery was made by the US government, and the memorial was dedicated by former president Bill Clinton in 2003; during the 10th anniversary commemoration another 619 of the victims were buried. Today there are 5,000+ people buried here. As more of the 8,200 massacre victims are exhumed from mass graves and identified, it is likely they will be interred here.
Notable residents
- Naser Orić, Army commander during the Bosnian War
References
- ↑ "Courting Democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina". Google Books. 17 May 2010. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Potočari. |