100,000 bones to be permanently installed in Potočari as a witness to genocide for future generations

The Center for Post-Conflict Research from Sarajevo is launching a project next week to realize a permanent installation of 100,000 bones in the Battery Factory in Potočari, which will remain a permanent witness to the scale of the genocide committed in July 1995 in Srebrenica, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria.

As CPI director Velma Šarić told the Patria agency, with the support of the Potočari Memorial Center, the organization Art of Revolution, the Srebrenica Municipality, and the Organizing Committee for the commemoration of July 11, they aim to show future generations the scale of the greatest crime in Europe after World War II.

- At the beginning of the week, we will gather architects, artists, and all those who can help us design what this installation should look like. We had temporarily placed it on the lawn in Potočari as the start of a memorial project, and it was assembled by volunteers from 20 countries who also attended the commemoration on July 11 – says Šarić.

The ceramic bones with engraved messages about the genocide will be a reminder for generations to come, and the Mothers of Srebrenica gave special support to the project, saying that one day when they are no longer here, someone else will have to speak about what happened in Srebrenica.

Similar installations exist in museums around the world, explains Šarić, but this one in Srebrenica will be set up for the purpose of educating future generations. Such an installation was also exhibited in the USA.

- We want to combine in one place the findings of the Hague Tribunal, the Commission for Missing Persons of BiH, and the International Commission on Missing Persons, and special support for the project was given by Hatidža Mehmedović – says Šarić.