Tihić led the March of Peace in 2006! Where are his successors?

Participants of this year's "March of Peace" are approaching Potočari and are expected to arrive in Srebrenica this afternoon, confirmed for the BiH news agency Patria (NAP) by the organizing committee. However, this year's March of Peace passed without the participation of high state officials and leading Bosniak politicians.

The Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bakir Izetbegović, was in London and is not participating in the column. He only sent his envoys to Nezuk to deliver political speeches.

But, as important as the gathering in London may have been, Izetbegović might not have realized that by not participating in the March of Peace, he broke the tradition and practice of the Bosniak member of the Presidency of BiH, as well as the leader of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), being part of this dignified act.

Namely, the outgoing SDA president, Sulejman Tihić, traversed the entire route of the March of Peace on multiple occasions. In 2006, while holding the same position as Chairman of the Presidency of BiH, which Izetbegović currently holds, Tihić led the column.

Tihić, as the leader of the SDA, was also at the March in 2007. He was joined by former US Ambassador Douglas McElhaney and the then-Reis-ul-ulema Dr. Mustafa Cerić. If his health permitted, he would not have missed it this year either, says Alija Budnjo, a member of the SDA Main Board, for the Patria agency.

- Tihić is better, I visited him in the past few days. As long as he was able, he went to the March of Peace. The last time, I think it was in 2012, but I don't see his successors doing it either - says Budnjo.

He says that the SDA headquarters only called him to check when they could bring the candidate lists for signature.

- I think he told them to bring them tomorrow - adds Budnjo.  

Otherwise, thousands of participants of the march, which pays tribute to the victims of genocide and commemorates the path of salvation that the people of Srebrenica had to take in an attempt to save their lives, are nearing their destination.

- We have about 20 kilometers left - Mirsad Bajrović, a member of the organizing committee, told us, NAP reports.