Photographer Tom Skipp documented an annual peace march in Bosnia
When he found himself living in Kigali, Rwanda while art directing Ni Nyampinga a magazine for an NGO, east London-based graphic designer, art director and photographer Tom Skipp was struck by the impact of genocide on the Rwandan people. In an unlikely twist, the experience ended up taking Tom to Bosnia on a photographic voyage to Bosnia.
“My friend Monika Orpik planned to attend a conference on Memory in Times of War in Sarajevo, then to travel on to villages around Bosnia and follow the peace march where she was carrying out her own photographic project,” Tom tells It’s Nice That. “As I looked into the Balkan war and the genocide upon Muslims in Bosnia it resonated with an ongoing project I’m doing in London called Welcome to Briton. I had to go and see what had happened and what the situation in Bosnia is now.”
Once there, Tom documented the annual peace march that commemorates the 15,000 men who walked 63 miles from Srebrenica to Tuzla to escape Serb persecution. His series Bosnia – “The United Nations left…” recounts the three-day event which starts on 7 July and has been held every year since 1995. “The walk and burial ceremony is such a statement of defiance,” Tom explains. “It retraces the steps made by refugees in 1995 to Potočari where the UN pulled out of their base and thousands of men and boys where killed. Bodies that have been found and identified throughout the year are buried here at the end of the march. It’s something that I felt needed to be recorded and shown to people, in the most sensitive way I could.”
“The extent of the atrocities committed was horrific,” Tom remembers. “Bosnia hasn’t yet recovered from this war. Some things that happened are far too horrifying for me to engage with. Sadly today in Srebrenica the current mayor denies that what happened was genocide, and some schools are trying to ethnically separate classes.”
A participant in the Mars Mira Remembrance walk removes his shoes after arriving in the overnight camp at Liplje Mravinjci, having walked 45 Kilometres in over 30 degree heat. Tom Skipp.
A television crew interview a man who’s family member is to be buried here, whilst a woman is suffering from heat stroke and an emotional break down. Tom Skipp.
The remains of the bodies to be buried at the Potočari memorial cemetery are stored in one of the old battery factory buildings. Tom Skipp.
Former changing rooms of the luge & bobsleigh track for the 1984 Winter Olympics, now used as a refuge for horses. Tom Skipp.
A waste pond near the aluminium factory in Petkovići. Boys and men were forced into trucks, taken here and executed. Tom Skipp.
People look for any shade in the soaring 40 degree temperatures. Tom Skipp.
Mothers, wives, daughters and friends grieve over the coffins of lost men. Tom Skipp.
‘Disko Klub Luna’ lays abandoned on the side of the road. Tom Skipp.
A woman tends to the grave of her husband. Tom Skipp.
Fatima tells how former Yugoslavian political leader Tito was a force for good. She now lives alone in Srebrenica providing lodgings for those visiting the Town. Tom Skipp.
Thousands of people camp overnight along the route of the march. Tom Skipp.
Former 1984 Olympic Ice Skating venue, that came under heavy shell fire during the conflict.
Camps are set up along the 110 Kilometre route. Tom Skipp.
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Bryony joined It's Nice That as Deputy Editor in August 2016, following roles at Mother, Secret Cinema, LAW, Rollacoaster and Wonderland. She later became Acting Editor at It's Nice That, before leaving in late 2018.