The truth about Srebrenica is needed by the world today more than by us, so that such evil does not happen to anyone, said Zlatko Lagumdzija, Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) to the United Nations (UN), in an interview on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica and its historic commemoration at the UN headquarters.
Lagumdzija emphasizes that marking this anniversary is important for those who survived, but also for those who are no longer here – the victims of the genocide, the greatest crime on European soil at the end of the 20th century.
“This must be emphasized: genocide is not only a historical or political fact but also a legal fact. That always needs to be underlined. Precisely for these reasons, this commemoration is turned towards the future, which is based on the strength of the survivors,” said Lagumdzija.
He reminded that after last year’s adoption of the Resolution on the Genocide in Srebrenica at the UN General Assembly, for the first time, July 11th was marked as the International Day of Remembrance for the Genocide in Srebrenica, organized by the Mission of BiH to the UN.
The Resolution was supported by 84 UN member states, while 19 were against.
Lagumdzija, along with a group of people, is particularly credited for the fact that today the whole world knows about the events of July 1995 in Srebrenica. He has been participating for more than a month and organizing numerous appropriate activities at the UN about the genocide in Srebrenica.
“None of this would have been possible if the Resolution on the Genocide in Srebrenica had not been adopted a year ago. Look at the world today, today we wouldn’t even be able to get that Resolution onto the agenda in such a world. Last year, we ‘entered during injury time’, as they say, we grabbed onto the last wagon and went towards the future. There is a chain of people around me, President Becirovic, Emir Suljagic, Munira Subasic, Grand Mufti Kavazovic…, not to mention others, we were all links, and if one link had broken – it wouldn’t have happened,” emphasized Lagumdzija.
He said that the Resolution had been worked on for years, thanks to which now, in five, ten, and every following year, July 11th will be the day when, because of the adopted UN Resolution, the entire world will be invited to join the commemoration, which is a key thing.
Unlike last year, when the program was organized by the BiH Mission, this year the obligation from the Resolution is taken over by the UN itself, including the Secretary-General, the President of the General Assembly, and the entire UN apparatus.
“The UN Department of Communications is now in charge of spreading the truth about what that resolution means, especially about the segment that concerns incorporating the lessons from the Srebrenica Resolution and the truth about the genocide into education systems around the world. This year, for the first time, we have a commemoration marking July 11th in the UN General Assembly,” said Lagumdzija.
Three generations, three messages
As part of the July 11th commemoration at the UN General Assembly, as Lagumdzija points out, among others, Dr. Denis Becirovic, member of the Presidency of BiH, and Munira Subasic, president of the “Mothers of the Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves” movement, will speak on behalf of the mothers of Srebrenica.
A “new generation” will also address those present, Mirela Osmanovic, who, in 1995, when the genocide was committed, was a child.
A special symbolism will be carried by the performance of Uma Cizmic, the third generation, daughter of a surviving camp prisoner, who will perform the composition “Srebrenica Inferno” on the violin, while the text will be performed in Bosnian and English.
In parallel with the commemoration, a trilogy of exhibitions dedicated to the genocide has been presented at the UN.
The first exhibition, opened in cooperation with the Srebrenica Memorial Center, shows the personal stories of survivors and warns that the denial of genocide leads to new crimes.
“This is no longer just about denial as the final stage of genocide, as some describe it. This is about what comes after triumphalism. It is not enough for people to deny genocide; they practically triumph over what they committed, and they deny it so brutally. That brutality of denial has been laid bare by this exhibition. The exhibition was supposed to last until mid-July, but it will remain open until the end of August at the entrance for visitors to the UN. So, in the 7th and 8th months, every visitor to the UN will see the exhibition, and that is the period when there are the most visitors,” said Lagumdzija.
The second exhibition, organized by the Memorial Center, is dedicated to future generations – survivors who today actively promote truth and reconciliation.
Becirovic and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH, Elmedin Konakovic, will speak at this exhibition.
“This exhibition essentially speaks about the fates of a number of people who survived all of that, but have lives full of strength and a desire for a different future. There you see that, despite what they went through, they have additional strength, not only to fight for the memory of the genocide in Srebrenica but to treat it as an experience that should be shared with the whole world so that it does not happen to anyone else,” said Lagumdzija.
The third exhibition, in cooperation with the Turkish Mission to the UN, is dedicated to the mothers of Srebrenica. Their white scarves, symbols of pain, dignity, and struggle, will be presented.
An appeal to the world: to learn, not to take revenge
“I think it is very important that people who come to the UN, from heads of state and ministers to ordinary visitors, are confronted with the truth about the genocide and with the strength of those who survived, but also who transform their experience into an appeal to the world to learn about the genocide in Srebrenica so that we all learn something together. To learn that the crime of genocide, and the survivors from Srebrenica showed this best, is not answered with hatred and revenge, but with a demand for justice, truth, for reconciliation based on truth and justice, and turning towards a future where we have all learned something together,” said Lagumdzija.
According to him, the time has come when “we no longer need to convince others to learn something about the genocide – they know.”
“I tell my interlocutors: ‘You need this more than we do.’ Because I think that the truth about Srebrenica and the messages of the genocide are more important to those whom the criminals have stained, and more important to those who do not see that it can happen to anyone if we do not draw lessons from the truth and justice about Srebrenica. The Resolution on Srebrenica is precisely that. Now the time has come for the court verdicts against Karadzic, Mladic, and others for the genocide in Srebrenica to move from the courtrooms to the classrooms and student desks around the world,” Zlatko Lagumdzija concluded.
