‘Direction Potocari’: From Srebrenica genocide to a Belgrade football match

“Pravac Potocari” or “Direction Potocari” were the words used by former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic as he entered Srebrenica on July 11, 1995.

Mladic was referring to the nearby village of Potocari, which hosted a United Nations peacekeeping base and was the initial gathering point for Bosniak refugees during the war in Bosnia. Under Mladic’s command, Bosnian Serb forces committed a genocide against thousands of Bosniak men and boys in the days that followed.

“Pravac Potocari” was also the slogan the fans of the Serbian football team Red Star chose on Sunday to honour the so-called “butcher of Bosnia”, who died in The Hague, the Netherlands, on August 27, while ⁠serving a life sentence for ‌genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. During a match against city rivals Partizan in the Serbian capital, the supporters also unveiled a giant image of Mladic and observed a minute of silence in his memory.

The tribute came days after European football governing body UEFA fined Red Star a total of 98,250 euros, or $114,100, over a banner -“General, eternal glory and thanks” – dedicated to Mladic that was unveiled by the club’s ultras during a Europa League playoff away leg in Plzen, in the Czech Republic.

The penalty included a ban on Red Star supporters travelling to the club’s next two European away fixtures, in Lugano, Switzerland on October 15 and Ghent, Belgium on November 26.

It was not the first time Red Star supporters had expressed support for Mladic during a European match. Nine years earlier, fans displayed similar messages during a Europa League tie against Belarusian club BATE Borisov.

For Slobodan Georgiev, a news director at TV Nova S in Serbia, the minute of silence at Belgrade’s Marakana stadium marked a qualitative shift rather than a repeat performance.

“Glorifying a convicted war criminal is nothing new, but officially paying tribute to him with a minute of silence is new – and it’s the most shameful event this stadium has witnessed,” Georgiev said. “Displaying the shameful slogan ‘Pravac Potocari’ cannot be justified, though in the coming days we’ll surely see attempts to do so.”