Donji Potočari
village in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Donji Potočari (Serbian Cyrillic: Доњи Поточари) is a village located in the municipality of Srebrenica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013 census, the village has a population of 705 inhabitants.
History
Bosnian War
During the Bosnian War, the village was in the Srebrenica municipality. Along with all other places in the municipality, its population swelled as it hosted refugees from neighboring parts of Bosnia. When Serb forces overran the municipality in July 1995, they carried out the Srebrenica massacre, killing over 8,000 Bosniak (Muslim) men and boys.
Postwar
In October 2000, Wolfgang Petritsch, the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, declared that the land in Potočari would be turned into a memorial and cemetery for the victims of the genocide. In May 2001, a foundation was established to oversee and finance construction of the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial. Two months later, around the time of the sixth anniversary of the massacre, a foundation stone was laid for the memorial in front of a crowd of 15,000 people. The first memorial was held in July 2002, with about 20,000 attendees. The first 600 victims were buried in the new cemetery in March 2003.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Donji Potočari” as village in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as village in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q332455. Authority coordinates are 44.149, 19.297. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2013, 1995, 2000 and 2001.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Donji Potočari”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Donji Potočari primary sources, Donji Potočari archive and Donji research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Donji Potočari”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Donji Potočari” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.