Srebrenica memorial to include Dutch peacekeepers' locale

SREBRENICA

A former battery factory building, in which, at the time of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, Dutch troops were stationed, will be transformed into a museum. 

The museum will be part of the memorial-cemetery complex in the village of Potocari, located about six kilometers northwest from the town of Srebrenica, in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

The "aim is to equip the interior of the building in the same way as it was equipped in 1995," Mersed Smajlovic, director of Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial, told The Anadolu Agency.

Members of the association “Mothers of Srebrenica,” which represents the relatives of the July 1995 victims, said they believed that opening the museum was the Netherlands' duty to all the victims of the Srebrenica genocide.

"Construction of the museum is very sad and painful for us. However, it is still a positive thing and a warning to all states not to fail the exam that the Netherlands has failed," Hatidza Mehmedovic, president of “Mothers of Srebrenica,” told The Anadolu Agency. 

During the war in Bosnia, the UN declared the Srebrenica enclave a safe zone under the protection of its peacekeeping forces.

In July 1995, the UN, represented by Dutch troops on the ground, let Army of Republika Srpska (Serb Republic) troops enter Srebrenica. The latter would kill 8,372 Muslim men and boys in just a few days.

In the summer of 2014, a Dutch court had found the Netherlands liable for the deaths of more than 300 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica, in a case launched by the "Mothers of Srebrenica." They had been handed by the over to Serbian forces by the Dutch peacekeeping force in Potocari. 

The museum will exhibit audio and video equipment, photos, maps, furniture that were onsite in 1995, said Smajlovic.

The project is being implemented in cooperation with the Dutch peace organization, PAX.

According to Smajlovic, the museum will be built and equipped by the end of 2015.