More than 70 scientists from 12 countries gathered at an international scientific conference in Sarajevo on the genocide in Srebrenica last week, 25 years after the worst crime on European soil since World War II, which is still denied in Bosnia and Herzegovina's entity Republika Srpska and neighboring Serbia.
The President of the Scientific Committee of the Conference, professor emeritus at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Sarajevo, academician Mirko Pejanović, said that the general position of all conference participants was that Srebrenica should be given a special socio-economic status in the domestic authorities and international institutions, in order to stop historical revisionism with on the one hand and ensured a dignified life for the surviving victims of genocide on the other.
The death of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys, who were killed by the army and police of Republika Srpska in a few days in July 1995, in the UN protected zone at the time, the political leaders of Republika Srpska most often call a bribe of Bosnian Muslims, despite the verdicts of the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia, which qualified the massacre in Srebrenica as genocide, in several final judgments, including those ruled against the largest military and political leadership of that entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Is the conference on Srebrenica in Sarajevo some kind of response to the denial of genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia?
- This is an international scientific conference on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the genocide committed against the Bosniaks of Srebrenica in July 1995. The conference is thematically focused on three aspects; the first is about the causes of the crime of genocide against Bosniaks in Srebrenica, the second is about the reconciliation of the committed genocide and the third is about the consequences of that genocide. Knowledge, work and energy in the preparation of this scientific conference have been united by the University of Sarajevo with its two institutes - the Institute for Research of Crimes against Humanity and International Law and the Institute of History, as well as the University of Tuzla. The Rector of the University of Sarajevo, Professor Rifat Škrijelj, together with the Rector of the University of Tuzla, Professor Nermina Hadžigrahić, managed the Organizing Committee. I have been assigned the role of managing the Scientific Committee.
In the relations of good cooperation of the Organizational and Scientific Committees, a notable response of scientific workers and researchers was ensured, even in the unfavorable circumstances of the pandemic. Over 70 scientific workers and researchers from the country and abroad prepared summaries for their selected topics. During September and October, the editorial office of Oslobođenja published the content of summaries for most of the topics that were written for the international scientific conference on the genocide of Bosniaks in Srebrenica. Thus, the researchers' main findings about the genocide in Srebrenica and the ideas based on them reached the wider scientific, professional and social public, both in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the region.
As a result, the attitude towards the genocide against the Bosniaks of Srebrenica gained a wider approach, and through that, the engagement of important social subjects. The denial of genocide was not the only motive for holding the international scientific conference. Other aspects are also included, namely the expansion of the content of the culture of remembrance, solidarity with the Srebrenica victims, economic and demographic renewal in the development of Srebrenica. Searching for a special social development status is the general point of view of all conference participants.
Can Bosnia and Herzegovina deal with genocide denial alone, or must it have the support of the wider international community?
- The majority of scientific workers who prepared their reports for the conference have the same point of view, namely that the genocide of Bosniaks in Srebrenica is a global issue. After the Holocaust against the Jews in the Second World War, it is the largest genocide in Europe against an ethnic group. The attitude towards the genocide in Srebrenica as an ethical issue cannot be narrowed down only to the framework of Bosnian society and the state.
Those relationships of moral responsibility should be encouraged and developed and extended to countries in the region, the Western Balkans, and to countries in the European Union, as well as to all democratic countries in the world. All international institutions, which deal with the promotion and protection of human rights, are also involved. Bosnia and Herzegovina's political and cultural elites, as well as the diplomatic service of Bosnia and Herzegovina, should initiate discussions and actions that develop an active attitude towards the crime of genocide against Bosniaks in Srebrenica.
Perhaps the most important thing is to seek moral condemnation and legal sanctions against people and organizations who deny the genocide and live in Bosnia and Herzegovina. If the special representative of the European Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Johann Sattler, would put on his program agenda the attitude towards the crime of genocide in Srebrenica, and if he would work to ensure that the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopts a resolution on the prohibition of the denial of genocide, then that would be a very important step for the adoption of the law that would introduce penal provisions for those who deny the genocide in Srebrenica.
Are the threats that Zlatko Paković receives in Serbia, or some other public figures, an indication that genocide is still an open political process?
- As long as extreme nationalist forces with the support of the media and part of the state structure operate on the public stage, they will spread hatred on a national basis, they will deny the genocide in Srebrenica, they will violently persecute freedom-loving people and people with tolerance for the other and the different. To the extent that European values, including the values of anti-fascism, will gain support in Serbian society and the state during integration into the European Union, to that extent the truth about Srebrenica will find its rightful place in the institutions of the Republic of Serbia.
You spoke about the need to achieve a different status for Srebrenica compared to today's status. What exactly did you mean?
- Advocacy for the special status of Srebrenica comes from a large number of scientific workers participating in the international scientific conference. I am only one among them. It is a broader research insight; into the social, economic and cultural reality of the municipality of Srebrenica, which arose after the genocide against Bosniaks in Srebrenica. The city center of Srebrenica and all local areas in the municipality were devastated during the war and during the genocide - the pre-war economy and communal infrastructure were destroyed, the majority of the Bosniak population was expelled and displaced from Srebrenica after the 1995 genocide. Behind the killed more than 8,000 Bosniak men, families were left without the conditions for economic life and self-sustainability, and there were thousands of children and mothers of murdered Srebrenica residents.
Their return to the city of Srebrenica and Srebrenica local areas does not have enough social and state support. According to estimates, around 12,000 displaced Bosniaks from Srebrenica live in the territory of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and over 5,000 live abroad. Srebrenica's biggest problem is unemployment and demographic stagnation. In order to change that, a special socio-developmental status should be advocated for Srebrenica [this does not mean advocating a new administrative status]. This status could be achieved by passing a law in the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the fund for the economic, infrastructural and demographic development of Srebrenica. I am not mentioning the National Assembly of Republika Srpska here, because that would just be an illusion. Maybe it will be one day.
Institutions of the European Union, such as the European Commission and the European Parliament, could ensure the special socio-developmental status of Srebrenica within their normative and other planning documents. The terrible act of genocide against Bosniaks in Srebrenica questions, in the opinion of the conference participants, the conscience of all humane people of Europe and humanity. Reisu-l-ulema Husein Kavazović advocated for this status of Srebrenica in his letter of support. Mr. Valentin Inzko, the High Representative of the International Community in BiH, also advocated in a certain way.
The conference adopted conclusions regarding the social development status of Srebenica, which will be sent in the form of recommendations to the parliamentary institutions of BiH, political parties and non-governmental organizations, European Union institutions and international institutions.
Nevenka Tromp, a former investigator at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, said that most of the scientific works, doctorates, are written by foreigners and less by people from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Why is it like that? To what extent, therefore, is the responsibility of Bosnia and Herzegovina itself to put the issue of Srebrenica in the place where it belongs?
- Mrs. Tromp has a broader insight into scientific research into the genocide committed against Bosniaks in Srebrenica. She herself contributed to the research of the truth about the crime of genocide in Srebrenica with her research and books. It is true that there are still a small number of researchers in Bosnia and Herzegovina who have written studies on the crime of genocide in Srebrenica based on historical, sociological, political and cultural research. The held conference with its proceedings, which will be printed at the beginning of next year, will provide incentives for new research. At the same time, there is a decision to proceed with the preparation of the next international scientific conference on Srebrenica, with the fact that it will be held in 2022 in Tuzla and Srebrenica.
Bosniaks are victims of the very act of genocide, but there is also a thesis that a large number of Serbs are victims of the 'Greater Serbian policy', because people are not allowed to look at the past from all angles? Do you agree with that thesis?
- As long as there are non-democratic [despotic] regimes both in Serbia and in the Republika Srpska, people live in ideological shackles within which convicted war criminals from the 1990s are celebrated. The most important thing for the Serbian people is a life in peace, and good relations with the peoples with whom they live together. The restoration of trust and the common search for living in the European Union will bring about a departure from the one-sided truths about the war crimes committed during the war '92-'95 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. All nations, including Serbs and Bosniaks, need progress in development and improvement in living standards. The idea of a greater Serbia brought victims to both the Serbs and the nations with whom they waged war.
Source: Al Jazeera