The Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Center will organize an exhibition titled “Mrtvare” (the Remains) in July at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York, following the adoption of a resolution by the UN General Assembly that designates July 11th as the official International Day of Reflection and Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide of 1995.
Almasa Smajlovic, spokesperson for the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial Center, said that they still do not know how July 11th will be observed in UN member countries, but that they are preparing for the exhibition at the UN.
“This is an exhibition we had last year, called ‘Mrtvare’. We worked together with photographer Armin Durgut, and photographs of ‘the remains’ of victims will be displayed,” she said, explaining that the exhibition will likely also include some items that belonged to the genocide victims, which were found along with their remains in mass graves, as well as some testimonies from survivors.
The text of the resolution, which was adopted with 84 votes in favor, 19 against, and 68 abstentions, calls on the UN Secretary-General to establish an information program titled “The Srebrenica Genocide and the UN,” and to begin activities and preparations for the 30th anniversary in 2025.
“It is a fact that July 11th will be proclaimed as the International Day of Remembrance. In the past, even before the resolution was adopted, the United Kingdom (UK) organized a Day of Remembrance for the Srebrenica Genocide. It is likely that these countries will commemorate it in some way. Whether it will be activities related to commemoration or simply a day of mourning, it is still too early to say,” Smajlovic explains.
The resolution obliges signatory countries to unreservedly condemn any denial of the Srebrenica genocide as a historical event, including through their educational systems, by developing appropriate programs aimed at preventing denial and distortion of facts, and the occurrence of genocide in the future.
Smajlovic said it is difficult to expect that the Srebrenica genocide will be “easily included in the educational system” in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). According to her, the Memorial Center has initiated several activities over the past year to make the study of the genocide part of education, but she emphasizes that this can only be done at the canton level.
“We tried to do this in the Canton Sarajevo (CS) with the Ministry of Education, in the Tuzla Canton (TC), and we hope, in the Zenica-Doboj Canton (ZDC). We hope these will be the first cantons, and that it will at least be adopted at the Federation level,” she said. She explained that they have created a manual that outlines how to study, and what messages to convey about the Srebrenica genocide in primary and secondary education, Detektor writes.
E.Dz.
Photo: AP
