Briefly Noted

Srebrenica Camp Closed Down

Campaigners demanding special status end their protest in the capital

By Merdijana Sadovic in Sarajevo (TU No 509, 10-July-07)

A camp set up in Sarajevo two and a half months ago by the survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre was closed down last week, before any of their demands were met.

Between 80 and 100 Srebrenica Muslims lived in this camp since April 16, hoping to pressure the Bosnian politicians and the international community to grant the town special status, which is currently run by the Bosnian Serb authorities.

The Initiative Board for Special Status for Srebrenica insisted that the town can no longer be part of Republika Srpska, whose institutions were involved in the 1995 genocide, as was established in the International Court of Justice ruling from February this year.

Party of Democratic Action, SDA, which is a leading Muslim party in Bosnia, announced recently that it would no longer support the demands of the Initiative Board

This issue has caused a rift among Bosnian Muslims and Serbs and raised tensions between the two Bosnian entities.

At a press conference held in Sarajevo on July 3, the president of the Initiative Board, Camil Durakovic, said he was disappointed by the lack of support for Srebrenica from local and international politicians.

“The camp will be closed down, but we will not give up on our demands” he said.

He added that Srebrenica survivors who lived in this camp for the last two and a half months have at least drawn attention to the problems they face.

Many of the residents of the camp said they would not go back to Srebrenica.


Merdijana Sadovic is IWPR’s Hague programme manager.