Srebrenica survivors retrace their steps

Ten years after thousands were killed trying to evade Bosnian Serb slaughter in Srebrenica, survivors of the infamous death march retraced their steps in reverse today to return to their hometown.

Nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed toward the end of Bosnia’s 1992-95 war when Bosnian Serb troops overran the eastern Bosnian enclave. Serbs rounded up the town’s male residents, shot all who couldn’t flee and scattered their remains in mass graves that continue to be found a decade later.

Today, about 1,000 Bosnian Muslims – mindful of mine fields still scattered throughout the area – were treading carefully as they made their symbolic walk back to the site of Europe’s worst slaughter of civilians since the Second World War.

“We will try to avoid paths through woods that could still be mined. The last thing we want to see is that someone gets hurt on this route again,” said Ramo Dautbasic, 37, a survivor of the July 1995 massacre and the organiser of the memorial march.

Dautbasic was among the 15,000 Muslims who tried to walk to freedom to the Muslim-controlled part of the country when Serb troops on July 11, 1995, stormed past 150 outnumbered and outgunned Dutch peacekeepers charged with protecting the UN-declared safe zone.

Dautbasic, his father and two brothers split up on the first day of the march, and he never again saw his 57-year-old father, Esed, or his brothers Aziz, 31, and Sefket, 29. All three are still missing.

During the seven-day march, Dautbasic – dodging Bosnian Serb snipers and mortars – survived by eating berries in the woods and drinking water from trenches.

Srebrenica was brought back into focus last month when footage – apparently recorded by Serb troops – was broadcast worldwide showing the execution-style killings of six Muslim men from Srebrenica by members of a paramilitary force from Serbia. Officials believe the six were participants of the death march who were either captured or surrendered.

“We were ambushed several times. The Serbs killed without prejudice, everyone - young or old, man or boy,” Dautbasic said today in a shaking voice. “I wasn’t wounded, but I had no shoes and my feet were hurt real bad. At the end of the march, I could hardly walk.”

Unlike Dautbasic, most survivors of the march, haunted by horrifying memories, could not find the strength to take part in the 45-mile memorial walk, part of events marking the 10th anniversary of the slaughter.

“I cannot even bear the thought of taking that same route again,” said Mensur Hrnic, 26, whose mother died. “I have nightmares about the horror of those 10 days. My father was killed and I was so badly wounded I almost lost my leg.”

The marchers will arrive in Srebrenica on Sunday evening and will join about 50,000 people, including regional leaders and international dignitaries, to mark the grim anniversary.

During the ceremony, 613 victims of the massacre will be buried at a memorial cemetery that already contains the remains of 1,300 others. Their bodies were exhumed from more than 60 mass graves that have been found around the eastern Bosnian town.

UN war crimes prosecutors have indicted Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his top general, Ratko Mladic, for genocide and crimes against humanity for the atrocities at Srebrenica and elsewhere in Bosnia. Both remain at large.