Donji Potočari ( sr-cyr, Доњи Поточари) is a village located in the municipality of

Srebrenica Srebrenica ( sr-cyrl, Сребреница, ) is a town and municipality located in the easternmost part of Republika Srpska, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a small mountain town, with its main industry being Salt mine, salt mining a ...

Republika Srpska Republika Srpska ( sr-Cyrl, Република Српска, lit=Serb Republic, also known as Republic of Srpska, ) is one of the two Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Feder ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

. As of 2013 census, the village has a population of 705 inhabitants.

History

Bosnian War

During the

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...

, the village was in the Srebrenica municipality. Along with all other places in the municipality, its population swelled as it hosted refugees from neighboring parts of Bosnia. When Serb forces overran the municipality in July 1995, they carried out the

Srebrenica massacre The Srebrenica massacre ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Masakr u Srebrenici, Масакр у Сребреници), also known as the Srebrenica genocide ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Genocid u Srebrenici, Геноцид у Сребрен ...

, killing over 8,000 Bosniak (Muslim) men and boys.

Postwar

In October 2000,

Wolfgang Petritsch Wolfgang Petritsch (born 26 August 1947) is an Austrian diplomat of Slovene ethnicity. Between 1999 and 2002 Petritsch served as the international High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Early life and studies Petritsch was born to a C ...

, the

High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina The High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, were created in 1995 immediately after the signing of the Dayton Agreement which ended the 1992–1995 Bos ...

, declared that the land in Potočari would be turned into a memorial and cemetery for the victims of the genocide. In May 2001, a foundation was established to oversee and finance construction of the

Srebrenica Genocide Memorial The Srebrenica Genocide Memorial, officially known as the Srebrenica–Potočari Memorial and Cemetery for the Victims of the 1995 Genocide, is the memorial-cemetery complex in Srebrenica set up to honour the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacr ...

. 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 the cemetery are 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 William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

in 2003; during the 10th anniversary commemoration another 619 of the victims were buried. Today there are more than 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.

Demographics

As of 1991 census, it had a population of 1,147 inhabitants, of whom 981 (85.5%) were

Bosniaks The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry ...

, 147 (12.7%)

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...

and 19 others. As of 2013 census, the village has a population of 705 inhabitants, of whom 363 (51.5%) were

, 330 (46.8%)

and 12 others.

Notable residents

Naser Orić Naser Orić (born 3 March 1967) is a former Bosnian military officer who commanded Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) forces in the Srebrenica enclave in eastern Bosnia surrounded by Bosnian Serb forces, during the Bosnian War ...

, Bosnian army commander during the Bosnian War

References

External links

US embassy press release regarding the US donation to the memorial fund
{{DEFAULTSORT:Donji Potocari Populated places in Srebrenica Srebrenica