[Fwd: Mars Mira]

Hi family!

 

Here are some photos and impressions from the march. I’m in Zenica staying with Mejra and Erma and all is well and I trust all is well at home. (It’s hot, but thankfully was not too hot during the march!)

 

About the march:

Dzile (in photo) was an escapee – along with about 5000 others who made it from Srebrenica during the massacre to Tuzla, an area controlled by the Bosnian army. The photo is in front of the house he was born in, also where his father was shot in the head, and where he now lives with his wife and three children.  It was when he was a refugee in Switzerland that he and a Swiss man first had the idea for the march, with the first march being in 2005 (following four previous, small marches in Switzerland).  His mother lives in Tuzla and rarely returns because of the memories.

 

The ‘Mars Mira’ or ‘Peace March’ commemorates the massacre of approximately 8.000 Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995, which was supposedly a UN safe haven being protected by Dutch UN forces.  The entire walk was in the Republika Srbska (sp?), that is, the Serbian half of BiH. The other half of the country is the Federation which consists of mostly Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) and Bosnian Croats.  This is how the country was divided after the war with the Dayton Accord, actually awarding the aggressors, the Bosnian Serbs, with what they wanted and to this day continues to create an impossible situation regarding creating a unified society in the country.

 

The scenery was often breathtaking and always rural or in the forest, 110 kilometers total.  Parts of the march were difficult and on the first day I was not sure I could make it, but after that a rhythm developed and all was fine, although frequently challenging since it was mostly up or down.  Along the way there were several returnee houses offering kafa to marchers – as it turned out, the woman adjusting her sunglasses in the coffee photo was my traveling companion. She is the director of an intern/study abroad program for grad students from Colorado.  The photo of students includes her and Alison (with white scarf), who developed the Bosnian side of the program and arranged transport and accommodations for us. And so we did not stay in the overnight camps, but rather in homes along the way. Alison also helped Peter and I with the quilt project, having formerly worked for Bosfam.

 

There were few Americans on the walk. I met people from Italy, Egypt, Turkey, Switzerland, Holland, Austria, UK, Canada and France, but mostly it was men, many of them young, from Bosnia. 

 

776 ‘bodies’ were buried this year; their remains being identified through DNA (60% of the remains must be identified before they can be buried, and some parts come from more than one grave since the bodies were moved to hide the evidence).  Hatidzah, my friend in Seattle and Abdullah’s wife, the Imam of the Seattle Bosniak community, found her father, brother, and brother-in-law this way, after DNA samples were taken from her and her mother. These are the most remains buried to date, with all victims identified during the year being buried at this annual commemoration. It was also the 15^th anniversary of the massacre.

 

The Prime Minister of Turkey, who has been doing a lot to smooth relations between Serbia and Bosnia, spoke at the memorial ceremony, as was Boris Tadic, the prime minister of Serbia (the parliament of Serbia officially apologized for the genocide recently). But what is important for the Bosniaks is that Ratko Mladic, who was the Bosnian Serb general responsible for this crime, be arrested. It is widely believed that he lives in Serbia.  Radovan Karadzidic, also a Bosnian Serb and who is largely responsible for planning the massacre, is currently on trial in the Hague. Some dignitaries arrived by helicopter. The US ambassador spoke. The Serb Republic sent a small delegation, but they still deny or completely downplay the entire affair. The media reported 50,000 people attended the memorial and I heard varying estimates on how many participated in the march –  one rumor was that 2,500 were officially registered with another 2,500 or so participating but not registered. (You can barely see the column of marchers in the one photo labeled as such.)

 

The walk and ceremony must certainly help the surviving families and Bosniaks in general to have closure, but any reconciliation will take generations. I feel fortunate that I was able to participate in this event – and that it went so well.

 

That’s enough for now – gotta get back to work!!

 

Love and hugs,

Julia/mom

 

ps -  including one last photo taken on the way to the airport!