Ultramarathon Runners Arrive in Potočari: This Place is a Stream of Tears

(Patria) - Participants of the 12th Vukovar – Srebrenica ultramarathon arrived in Potočari this afternoon to pay tribute to the victims of the genocide.

Ultramarathon runners Boban Pantović, Mirsad Softić, Dražen Ćućić and Robert Kasumović ran 221 kilometres in five days, in five stages, from Vukovar (Ovčara) via Vinkovci, Brčko, Janja and Zvornik to Srebrenica (Potočari). They were welcomed in Potočari by Ivan Sabolić, the Croatian ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"I am participating for the third time. This place is called Potočari, for me today this place is a stream of tears. That is the only adequate name. My brothers in spirit, they all deserve congratulations for this feat; without their support I certainly would not have been able to complete this project. I cannot help but recall the verses of Aleksa Šantić: Blessed is he who has tears, whose heart has not died…

This is where the international community made great mistakes and continues to make mistakes to this day because not all the problems that still smoulder are being resolved here. It is extremely important that we all return to ourselves, to our families, that we raise our children, that we develop love in them, that we teach them to recognise love within themselves, because only evil people can commit such crimes. The saddest thing is that I remember for a long time and even today I see people who were complicit in such events and were not held accountable. We are not politicians, we speak with heart and soul and through silence while we run," said Pantović.