Donji Potočari
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Donji Potočari ( sr-cyr, Доњи Поточари) is a village located in the municipality of
Srebrenica Srebrenica ( sr-cyrl, Сребреница, ) is a town and municipality in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a small mountain town, with its main industry being salt mining and a nearby spa. During the Bosnian War in 1995, Srebr ...
,
Republika Srpska Republika Srpska ( sr-Cyrl, Република Српска, ; also referred to as the Republic of Srpska or Serb Republic) is one of the two Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, entities within Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other bein ...
,
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...
. As of 2013 census, the village has a population of 705 inhabitants.


History


Bosnian War

During the
Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...
, 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, also known as the Srebrenica genocide, was the July 1995 genocidal killing of more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys in and around the town of Srebrenica during the Bosnian War. It was mainly perpetrated by unit ...
, killing over 8,000 Bosniak (Muslim) men and boys. Revenge was triggered due Muslim crimes against Serbian civilians.


Postwar

In October 2000, Wolfgang Petritsch, 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, was created in 1995 immediately after the signing of the Dayton Agreement which ended the 1992 to 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. 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 and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
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 (, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who sha ...
, 147 (12.7%)
Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of Serbia, history, and Serbian lan ...
and 19 others. As of 2013 census, the village has a population of 705 inhabitants, of whom 363 (51.5%) were
Bosniaks The Bosniaks (, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who sha ...
, 330 (46.8%)
Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of Serbia, history, and Serbian lan ...
and 12 others.


Notable residents

*
Naser Orić Naser Orić (born 3 March 1967) is a Bosnian former 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. In 200 ...
, 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