High Representative Christian Schmidt was speaking today at the opening of an exhibition at the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Centre. The exhibition, organized with the assistance of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and the Embassy of the Netherlands, comprises 100 personal stories by Srebrenica genocide survivors filmed over the past year, as well as artefacts and items that belonged to the victims.
High Representative emphasized the importance of the reconciliation process in BiH’s society and the treatment of victims and survivors of the Srebrenica genocide, as well as all other war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. “We must not let the victims’ memory fade away, be tarnished or denied. Victims are not just numbers but persons with their life accomplishments as well as aspirations and dreams which remained unfulfilled. This is a basic civilizational standard and anyone who aspires to be considered as part of the civilized world should not have an issue with it,” said the High Representative Schmidt.
Studying what happened and why it happened is not about living in the past. It is about establishing justice and truth so that reconciliation has a chance and people can live peacefully in the present and the future. “The legacy of today’s generations should be to leave no obstacle to the coming generations in understanding what happened in the past. With an understanding of facts and what happened, we improve the prospects for a good future in BiH society, especially for the families of victims and all those who survived,” concluded the High Representative.
