Two Manchester University students, Iman Nauman and Zainab Ahmed, were lucky enough to be selected as delegates for the charity organisation ‘Remembering Srebrenica’ to explore the Bosnian Genocide and its impacts on the lives of those affected as the end of the war approaches its 20th anniversary.
‘Remembering Srebrenica’ is a British charity which focuses upon the events in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, which was under the watch of the United Nations Protection Force during the Balkans Conflict. However in 1995 Serbian paramilitary units overran the town capturing its population. In the following days over 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were murdered and buried in mass graves, whilst many women were deported and forced into ethnic cleansing rape camps.
The two students went to the Bosnian region where the conflict began in 1993 to take part in cultural understanding lessons. They also met some survivors of the genocide, including mothers of Srebrenica whose husbands and sons were lost in the massacres. They described meeting the mothers as a very humbling moment. It was at that moment that the conflict became humanised.
Nuaman and Ahmed described the meetings as ‘truly eye-opening’ yet also incredibly emotional due to the nature of their visit. They emphasised the importance of such meetings with genocide survivors. There is only so much documentaries and news clips can show. The people of a country cannot be judged by media or by the actions of their governments. In order to understand the full impact hate crimes have upon normal citizens it is important to make an effort to educate ourselves properly.
The students were fortunate enough to also visit the facilities of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in Sarajevo and Tuzla to learn about the difficult, painstaking but ultimately successful work that continues to be done in the identification of victims buried in mass graves. Here they were able to learn about and discuss the actions and aftermath of genocide, and the difficult process of reconciliation.
The programme aims to raise awareness of what it describes as “one of the worst atrocities committed on European soil since the Second World War”. They aim to teach lessons from the events in Bosnia between 1992-1995 and to draw upon this understanding to promote tolerance and community cohesion here within the UK.
During their visit with the organisation, Nauman and Ahmed learnt about the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Complex, a non-profit organisation that aims to build and maintain a complex in memory of the victims of the Srebrenica genocide, founded in May 2001.
By Aileen Rose Duffy
(Source: mancunion)
