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It’s the last day of May in Srebrenica and a motorcycle rally is being held in the town that remains notorious for the 1995 genocide.
Some of those at today’s rally are joining this week’s Srebrenica Moto Marathon to mark the 30th anniversary of the genocide, in honour of those who lost their lives.
Enver Sulic of the Suburb Riders motorcycle club from Ilidza, who is the head of the Moto Marathon organising committee, explains that the idea was hatched in 2012.
“When it comes to bikers, our solidarity, our attitude towards other bikers and towards everyone else is unequalled,” Sulic says. “Through this solidarity of ours, it’s enough to call a couple of phone numbers, and get a group of 100, 200, 300 motorcyclists.”
He says around 1,500 bikers took part in last year’s Moto Marathon. This year they expect an even larger number, to pay tribute to the Bosniak boys and men from Srebrenica massacred by Bosnian Serb forces.
Each year, the remains of people who died in the genocide that have been newly identified over the previous 12 months are buried during the anniversary commemoration at the Srebrenica Memorial Centre.
Mersudin Hasanovic. Photo: Detektor
This evokes particularly strong emotions in Miralem Batlak, a member of Blue Knights motorcycle club, who has participated in all but the first Moto Marathon, and is now one of the members in charge of the safety of participants.
“I am a believer and I know what it means to attend someone’s funeral,” says Batlak. He says it “makes me extremely proud” to stand alongside those who experienced such suffering.
The bikers start their annual ride in Bihac in the north-west of the country on July 9, and then ride through Kljuc, Jajce and Travnik before arriving in the capital Sarajevo.
The next morning, after laying flowers at the memorial for children killed during the siege of Sarajevo, they head for the Srebrenica Memorial Centre.
‘Thunderous silence’
This year, bikers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and other countries will ride in the Moto Marathon.
The participation of bikers from all over the world is of great importance to Mersudin ‘Uco’ Hasanovic, a member of the Argentum motorcycle club from Srebrenica.
“When you start the engines and set out from Sarajevo, for example, you travel in two columns and you feel a thunderous silence. Even though the running of so many engines creates a huge noise, you feel the silence,” Hasanovic says.
“For people like me from Srebrenica, this is very emotional. The traffic stops and an endless number of people stand by the road, waving. It is hard not to shed a tear,” he says.
Sulic explains that bikers ride in formation from Sarajevo to the Memorial Centre in the village of Potocari, and that this overcomes prejudices that people may have about them.
“Imagine 2,000 motorcyclists riding in formation next to each other, without honking the horn even once, without accelerating, driving in procession from Sarajevo to Potocari at the lowest possible speed, and in this precise way, sending a message of peace, a message that it should never happen to anyone anywhere, that it should not be repeated, and that it should not be forgotten,” he says.
Sulic, Batlak and Hasanovic all mention riding through the town of Nova Kasaba as something that touches them particularly each year, when women come out of the houses with flowers and throw rose petals on the road.
“When we pass through, when this entire group of motorcycles passes through, it awakens special feelings. I believe that not a single biker goes past without shedding a tear under their helmets,” Batlak says.
“Usually, when you ride, you feel freedom, but that day you feel like you ride your motorcycle for a greater cause,” Hasanovic says.
‘Riding for a greater cause’
Enver Sulic. Photo: Detektor
Nihad Zorlak will participate in the Moto Marathon for the first time this year, with his three friends from Turkey.
Born and raised in Germany, Zorlak has attended funerals and commemorations in Srebrenica multiple times, and this year he wants to pay tribute by arriving on his motorcycle.
“I have children, I tell them the story of Srebrenica so that they know where they come from and what happened in Bosnia, even though they were born here. My children ask me if I look forward to this, and what I expect,” says Zorlak, whose family is originally from Gorazde in Bosnia.
In Srebrenica, the sun sets over the motorcycle camp in the town that carries the burden of its past. Bikers ride side by side, and, without many words, tell stories of solidarity, friendship, and respect – both towards one another, and for the innocent victims of the genocide.
Hasanovic explains that for those involved, the Moto Marathon to Srebrenica is something special.
“Usually, when you ride, you feel freedom, but on that day, you feel like you’re riding your motorcycle for a greater cause,” he says.