Month of Remembrance: The Bosnian War

Never Again?

Often called Europe's second Genocide of the 20th Century, and labeled by President Barack Obama as "a stain on our collective consciousness," this year, on July 11, 2010 marked the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica Massacre where about 8,000 Bosniak men and boys, as well as the ethnic clensing of another 25,000-30,000 refugees, in and around the town of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by units of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) under the command of General Ratko Mladic' during the Bosnian War.

The date of the "11th" is an important one during commemoration, as it is the official commemoration date of the massacre, and more importantly, on the 11th of every month, Women in Black in Serbia and several mothers of Srebrenica groups in Bosnia hold silent public vigils in conspicuous public space throughout Serbia and Bosnia. The purpose of these demonstrations is to advocate for public and political recongition of Serbian/Bosnian-Serb military/paramilitary crimes agains the Bosniaks in Srebrenica, to call attention to Dutch (and UN/International) culpability for the crimes committed, and to call for reparations & assistance for the survivors and victims' families.

This month, the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, in association with the Noyes Museum of Art, invites the entire Stockton and greater surrounding communities to join us in education, commemoration and action as we honor the lives lost, remember the survivors whose lives have been permanently interrupted, and reflect upon the failures of humanity that made this massacre possible so we may all learn to think and act toward making the well-worn post-Holocaust Mantra "Never Again" a reality.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Srebrenica Victims' Relatives Search for Justice

In 2008, Alan Fisher (reporting for Al Jazeera http://english.aljazeera.net/) showed the continued lack of closure and justice for families of the victims of the Srebrenica massacre.

Each year, more victim's bodies are recovered from the July 1995 massacre by Bosnian Serb forces at a time when Srebrenica had been declared a UN safe area under the protection of Dutch peacekeepers.

Thirteen years after the massacre at Srebrenica, a group of women in Bosnia who all lost family members in the massacre, watch closely the trial in The Hague of Radovan Karadzic, the former ultranationalist Bosnian Serb leader in the 1992-1995 civil war in the former Yugoslavia.

For more current information on Radovan Karadzic, see the NY Times article in the Useful Information Links box.

Monday, October 04, 2010

Zlata's Message

A member of the Network of Young People Affected by War (NYPAW), this is a video message from Zlata Filipovic for the Rome Conference on Children and Armed Conflict (June 23, 2009).

Drazen Erdemovic's Statement of Guilt

Drazen Erdemovic was a soldier in the 10th Sabotage detachment of the Bosnian Serb Army. In the aftermath of the July 1995 Serb takeover of Srebrenica, where he participated in the ececutions of hundreds of unarmed Bosnian men from the enclave. Erdemovic was the first person to plead guilty at the Tribunal. He later testified as a witness in separate trials and provided significant and detailed evidence about the crimes that were committed during the genocide. With a guilty plea on the count of Crimes Against Humanity, Erdemovic was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment after his appearance before the Trial Chamber in May of 1996. (Playwright Kitty Felde's work "A Patch of Earth" is about this man and his confession).

Lost Images - Bosnian War/Srebrenica Massacre

In July of 1995, Serbian journalist, Zoran Petrovic, filmed the Srebrenica massacre known as the documentary "A Cry From the Grave." He was the only camera man to capture these harrowing events on film, but some of the worst parts of his footage were never revealed. This 30 minute clip are those "lost images." (The entire documentary can be found in 9 part clips on www.youtube.com under the title Srebrenica Massacre).

Pages