People of Srebrenica Leave Sarajevo Camp

The camp has lost its purpose. We are leaving, but we will not stop the fight, says initiative committee president Camil Durakovic.

The people of Srebrenica who left their town and lived in tents in Sarajevo as a sign of protest, will be returning to their homes. This was announced by the president of the initiative committee for the special status of Srebrenica Camil Durakovic. They will move out of the camp in the course of the week, he said, in spite of the announcements saying that they would remain there until Srebrenica is given special status and separate from Republika Srpska. 

“The camp is leaving, there in no purpose [to it] anymore. In a few days, the initiative committee will hold a meeting about the camp as one of the mechanisms of our fight. We are leaving, but we will never stop the fight. There is no point to staying now, considering that they [drew a line] and told us: ‘we are not in favour of it and we do not stand behind you,’” Durakovic told daily newspaper Dnevni avaz. 

As Durakovic said, such a decision was made because of the “moves of a political party, which cast the whole thing into water.” 

“In what way, how, why? We can only say, we cannot kick against the pricks. We are the people, our initiative is such, our legitimate will is not what they did and the move they made. The people know what they want very well. At this moment, we are turning over the whole responsibility to them,” Durakovic pointed out. Some have already abandoned the camp, but they did not return to Srebrenica. 

“I am not going to return to Srebrenica, what would I do there? I lived there for five years, the money is collected and there is no progress. Simply put, there is no life in Srebrenica and everyone has deceived us,” says former Srebrenica resident Zifa Hasanovic.