Five genocide victims to be buried in Potočari on July 11, appeal to families to give consent

(Patria) - So far, five families have given consent for the burial of five identified victims of the Srebrenica genocide, who will be buried on July 11 in the Potočari Memorial Cemetery, on the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica.

Yesterday, the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed that another victim of the genocide committed in the summer of 1995 in Srebrenica was identified at the Podrinje Identification Project in Tuzla. The victim is of Bosniak ethnicity and was killed in July 1995 in the Bratunac area.

The family identified the remains of Sejdalija (Alija) Alić, born in 1948 in the village of Jagodnja near Bratunac. He was killed in July 1995 in the Kamenica area.

His remains were found 25 years after his death during an exhumation carried out at the Kamenica site in June 2020. Alić's remains were first identified through DNA analysis, after which his family members accepted this identity in the official identification process.

Following the identification, the family gave consent for the burial of this victim at the collective funeral prayer that will be held on July 11, 2025, at the Srebrenica Memorial Center in Potočari.

The Institute appeals to families of victims whose remains have been identified so far to give consent for burial. However, given that the remains are incomplete, families still hope that during exhumations they will find at least a few more bones. It is precisely for this reason that some families are not yet ready to give consent for the burial of their loved ones.

As Emza Fazlić, spokesperson for the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, told Patria, around 400 sets of remains are awaiting re-exhumation, meaning that subsequently found remains need to be added to already buried victims.

"Many families have moved away, especially those who were among the first to bury family members, and we have lost contact. We ask families to call the Institute's phone numbers and leave their contact information so that we can obtain consent for re-exhumation," Fazlić said.