Potočari
11th-13th July-The conditions in Potočari were deplorable. There were around 20,000 to 25,000 refugees gathered and pressed inside the UN compound. Others gathered in fields and factories. It was mainly children, women, and elderly and disabled, however it was reported around 300 men inside the compound and 600-900 in the crowd; the Dutch claimed their base is full. Many people fell and were trampled on. During the afternoon, Serb soldiers mingled in the crowd. Summary executions of men and women occurred. Stories of rape and killings spread and the terror escalated. Around 20-30 bodies were found heaped behind the Transport building, a witness saw a soldier slay a child with a knife and the executions of more than one hundred men behind the zinc factory and then there bodies loaded on a truck.
The men were then separated from the women and children and put on buses where they were told they would be reunited later. However, the men were deported and executed, and their bodies put in mass graves.
Ethnic cleansings continued in Bosnian territories with the aim to link it to Serbian territory. Bosnians were either killed or forced to flee to Srebrenica.
•On the evening on 11th July able-bodied men took to the woods to form a column together with members of the 28th Division of the Army of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and attempt a breakthrough towards Bosnian-held territory in the north, Tuzla. There were around 10,000 - 15,000 men in the column. The route was notorious, crossing hilly terrain at the height of summer, everyone had enough rations for two days, after that they would eat grass and snails, and the temperatures caused dehydration. The men faced the choice between giving themselves up or carrying on. Carrying on would entail conflict with the VRS and mental distress. People turned on each other, killing each other, others committed suicide. The column stretched back several kilometers which made it an easy target. They were ambushed various times along the journey fired at from all directions. Some of the wounded were left behind others carried on make shift stretchers. There were rumors that VRS personnel in civilian dress had infiltrated the column at Kamenica. The Drina Corps and the various brigades were ordered to devote all available manpower to the task of finding, stopping, disarming and taking prisoner the men of the column.
•A second group of around 700 attempted to escape to Serbia. It is not known how many were intercepted, and killed along the way.
The last VRS line to break through was at Baljkovica. On the evening of July 15th a hailstorm forced Serb troops to take cover, the column took advantage of this situation to attack. They captured several heavy arms and turned fire on the Serb front line. They broke to Bosnian territory around 1-2 pm July16.
Only one third of the column reached safety. Some wearing only underwear, others with their feet bleeding, wrapped in rags. Some were delirious and hallucinating. One soldier was killed as he opened fire on his own unit. They were bitter that the UN didn’t protect the safe area.
People took months to reach Tuzla. They hid in the woods for days eating snails, leaves and mushrooms. They didn’t know what to do next. They split into smaller groups, some turned towards Žepa following overhead cables as they didn’t know the way. Others headed back to the Srebrenica region were they of where to find food, hiding in towns and then heading to either Žepa or Tuzla.
To conceal the mass murders the Serbs would dig up the first burial sites and move the bodies to more remote areas. VRS troops started clearing bodies from Srebrenica, Žepa, Kamenica and Snagovo. Work parties and municipal services were deployed to help. In Srebrenica, the refuse that had littered the streets was collected and burnt, the town disinfected and deloused
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