Witnessing History: Reflections of an Academic on the Beyond Srebrenica Delegation

I’m still processing my weekend as part of Beyond Srebrenica’s delegation to a very snowy Bosnia.

I’m rather no stranger to a genocide education trip and yet so much of what I learnt was startling and fills my mind. From the streets of Sarajevo, where empires and cultures have collided over the centuries, to the quiet of Srebrenica, I’m sure this will stay with me for years to come.

Standing amongst row on row of graves, some buried in the last year, is a stark reminder of just how recent the genocide here was. Everything is a reminder of the differences and never ending similarities to my usual research. There are still the shoes and house keys. The objects of ordinary people and everyday life. But there are also trainers and jeans, in colour not black and white.

We were privileged to hear from survivors. Their strength will never be forgotten. A mother, Fadila, tells us about how she met her husband before he was murdered and thanks us for allowing her to tell us of “a time when I was young and happy”. Almasa tells us of how proud she is of the mothers and how they do not hate and of the lessons not yet learnt. Nedžad who calmly tells us in small room in our hotel in Srebrenica of how he survived a massacre. He tells us of his daughters but also how “the genocide never ended”. Bakira who continues to fight for survivors of rape like herself, but struggles to get enough funding to do so. There is fear of the future.

I’m angry. Failed promises of UN safe zones. Towns where we are told to remove our memorial badges. Uncommemorated massacre sites just down the road from memorials to the perpetrators of those crimes. The denial here is unlike anything I believed to be possible. The fragility of peace that we take so much for granted has never been clearer to me. The contemporary political situation is of a country still divided and deeply scarred by what happened here.

I hope for justice here and that peace prevails. I hope that we finally learn lessons from genocide. That we will continue to find the courage to call it was it is and fight against hate anywhere and everywhere that we see it. We can and we must do better.

I’m deeply grateful for this past weekend. To my fellow delegates and of course to our incredible guide Cibra Suvad and the team of Beyond Srebrenica Sabina Kadić-Mackenzie and Julie Adair, thank you so much.

eloise bishop