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.

Filipovic

Zlata Filipovic was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1980. At the age of ten, she started keeping a diary, which, which conflict began in the former Yugoslavia, became a record of war and survival in her city. Zlata's Diary was published first in France in 1993 and was an instant international best seller. It has since been translated into thirty-six languages and is required reading in many schools around the world.

Filipovic holds a B.A. in Human Sciences from Oxford University and an MPhil in International Peace Studies from Trinity College in Dublin. She has spoken extensively at schools and universities around the world and has worked on many occasions with organizations such as the Anne Frank House, the United Nations, and UNICEF. She is also a three-time member of the UNESCO Jury for Children's and Young People's Literature Prize for Tolerance.

Her written work includes contributions to several books, radio programs and newspapers, including a foreword for The Freedom Writers Diary (Doubleday, 1997), the English translation of Milosevic: The People's Tyrant (I.B. Tauris, 2004), for which she has also written a foreword, and co-edited Stolen Voices: Young People's War Diaries from WWI to Iraq (Penguin, 2006).

Filipovic has worked within the UN Children and Armed Conflict Division in Newy York under Olara Otunnu and collaborated with Amnesty International USA on developing human rights education  material based around the book, Stolen Voices. Today, a young woman of nearly 30 years old, she lives in Ireland and serves on the executive committee of Amnesty International Ireland as an advocate for other child victims and survivors of war all over the world.
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