This year, as well as previous years, citizens of Prijedor and Kozarac marked the existence of concentration camps in Prijedor during the war in Bosnia. In marking of these painful past, other citizens from Bosnia and Herzegovina were present as well. The marking was scheduled to be held on the site of the former camp Trnopolje, however, due to the bad weather condition, it was moved to hotel Prijedor.
In the framework of the program, the third international award for combating denial of genocide was allocated to the Croatian director Oliver Frljić. Frljić was awarded for his approach and commitment in the fight against forgetting the recent history, and because of his uncompromising work in order to bring back humanity in all of us. The reasoning of award allocation was that Frljic is a “personification of an artist who is aware of where he lives and the kind of problems the society is facing.” The award was allocated to Frljić by the representatives of the association “Izvor”.
In addition, the panel titled “New approaches to dealing with the past, why and how” was held as a part of the program. On panel, the participators were Oliver Frljić, Dragan Bursać columnist from Banja Luka and Nidžara Ahmetašević reporter of Slobodna Bosna. The discussion about the need to find new approaches to reconciliation with the past, in order to relieve future generations was opened.
“Right now we live in a time of irreconcilable narratives, which makes an atmosphere of mistrust and tension among nations. In my opinion, people are not collectively guilty, but must collectively face with each other,” said Dragan Bursać at the opening of panel.
“The question you often ask is” who won the war in Bosnia? ‘Looking Prijedor, I understand how much it is repressed, as if the war just moved to a mental sphere. War is the continuation of politics by other means, it is not yet complete, the killing continues because social policy is killing people” added Oliver Frljic.
The program was organized by the CZM “Kvart” Prijedor and “Optimisti” Kozarac, with the support of the association “Izvor”.
ST
