Within USAID’s PRO-Future project, representatives of the Srebrenica Memorial Center, Catholic Relief Services and Unioninvest d.d. signed a contract on the construction of a facility for housing the remains of genocide victims within the complex of the Srebrenica Memorial Center.
The signing was also attended by a delegation of senators from the United States of America (USA) and American Ambassador Michael Murphy.
The Memorial Center pointed out that this will officially begin the construction of the depot – a facility where biological material, personal items and clothing of genocide victims exhumed from hundreds of mass graves over the past three decades will be stored in an adequate and dignified manner, and which to this day are not identified.
“All the material is currently in boxes and bags in the premises of the Podrinje identification project in Tuzla, which was an inadequate and temporary solution from the very beginning,” said Emir Suljagić, director of the Srebrenica Memorial Center (MCS).
“The facility we are building will help preserve in a dignified manner all that is left behind by the victims of genocide and thus contribute to awareness of their suffering. At the same time, this will give families a sense of security that their loved ones will not be forgotten. This facility, in accordance with the overall purpose of the Memorial Center, should serve to honor the victims and preserve historical memory,” added Suljagić.
He explained that the initiative to build the facility was initiated by the MCS and the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) back in 2016, and three years later a conceptual solution was created according to which it would be located in the hall of the former battery factory. Completion of the works on the building is planned in the spring of 2024.
Funds for construction were pooled by the Srebrenica Memorial Center and the American Agency for International Development (USAID) through the peace project PRO-Buducnost. The facility represents a significant contribution to the memorialization and prevention of genocide denial.
“The culture of silence and denial is still very pronounced in Bosnia and Herzegovina and represents a serious obstacle to the establishment of lasting peace in this country. This facility and everything in it will remind future generations of the truth about the genocide in Srebrenica, in the hope that such something never again and nowhere again,” said Sanela Imamović, representative of the organization Catholic Relief Service (CRS) BiH, which implements the PRO-Future project, BHRT reports.
