Zagreb, 8 July 2025 (Hina/MIA) -- More than 6,000 people joined a march through the forests and hills of eastern Bosnia on Tuesday, retracing the route taken by Bosniaks fleeing the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995. The Peace March marks the beginning of a series of commemorative events leading up to the central ceremony on Friday to mark the 30th anniversary of the genocide.

Ahead of the central commemoration, which will include an address by Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković in Srebrenica, organizers have held numerous events and conferences, including commemorations in the European Parliament in Strasbourg and at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Under a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2024, with Croatia among the countries voting in favor, July 11 was designated as the International Day of Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide.

At Nezuk, the starting point of the Peace March, many survivors of the genocide and family members of the victims gathered, according to the head of the organizing committee, Suljo Čakanović.

He said a record 6,500 participants had registered, coming not only from Bosnia and Herzegovina but from many other countries where Bosniaks found refuge during the war.

"I am especially glad that almost 60 percent of participants are under the age of 30, which means we have achieved our goal – that young people are now taking over the leadership of this activity from us, the survivors of the genocide. God willing, when we bury all our loved ones and after the commemorations and funeral prayers, the Peace March will remain until Judgement Day,” Čakanović was quoted as saying by the Dnevni Avaz news portal.

Participants will walk roughly 100 kilometers along the same paths that Bosniaks used in an attempt to reach Bosnian government-controlled territory near Tuzla, after Bosnian Serb military and police forces captured the UN-declared safe area of Srebrenica on July 11, 1995.

Lightly armed Dutch UN peacekeepers stationed there had no clear mandate to defend the enclave and failed to prevent its fall. Immediately afterward, on the orders of General Ratko Mladić, Serb forces began systematically separating Bosniak men and boys from their families and carrying out mass executions.

More than 7,000 Bosniaks, mostly men and boys, were killed within a week, in what was later ruled a genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice.

The total number of victims, inscribed on the memorial in the Potočari memorial complex, is estimated at 8,372, though it is believed that the final figure may be even higher.

So far, 6,765 genocide victims have been buried in the memorial cemetery at Potočari, their remains recovered from mass and individual graves, while another 250 victims have been buried elsewhere in accordance with family wishes.

Following Friday's central commemoration, the remains of another seven victims will be laid to rest. Among them are two young men who were 19 years old at the time of their deaths.

The youngest victim buried at Potočari to date was a newborn baby, a girl named Fatima Muhić. The oldest was Šaha Izmirlić, who was 94 when Srebrenica fell.

The remains of over 1,000 genocide victims are still missing.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and courts in Serbia and Croatia have so far convicted 54 individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and other war crimes committed in Srebrenica, handing down a total of 781 years in prison and five life sentences.

The ICTY alone convicted 18 individuals in relation to the Srebrenica genocide, issuing five life sentences and a total of 219 years in prison. Life sentences were handed down to Bosnian Serb military and political leaders Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadžić as well as senior military officers Zdravko Tolimir, Vujadin Popović and Ljubiša Beara. Radislav Krstić and Drago Nikolić received 35-year prison terms.

Despite these convictions, genocide denial persists. Since 2021, denying or minimizing war crimes that have been established in final court rulings has been a criminal offense in Bosnia and Herzegovina under a decision by then High Representative Valentin Inzko.

Leading the denial efforts is Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, who on July 5 told journalists in Bratunac near Srebrenica that there had been "attempts to fabricate lies about how a mass slaughter took place in Srebrenica over seven days."

"They tried to spread the lie that a mass slaughter occurred in seven days and that it should be considered a form of genocide," Dodik said at the time.

He claimed that the memory of the Srebrenica victims was being turned into "a political movement" and accused the ICTY of ruling based solely on political motives. He said that the Republika Srpska, the Serb entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, would find ways to respond to the "politicization of the suffering".