Srebrenica 2023: Political Instability And Rampant Genocide Denial

Tuesday, the eleventh of July, 

one thousand-nine-hundred-ninety-five. 

(“I’d go back to die there!”)

That date, around Srebrenica’s neck,

was threaded up a thread of names,

all the jewels from the necklace of Civilisation,

who on earth would ever believe it!

Ah, had they only wished, men,

whenever they saw how falls a star,

that no mother give birth to a youth¹Double entendre: the word for “youth” in Bosnian is “mladić”, which is also the last name of Ratko Mladić, the war criminal in charge of the Bosnian Serb army during the attack on Srebrenica,

to call, gun in hand:

“Straight to Potočari!”

to hunt human beings! 

(Excerpt from Srebrenica is a Fallen Star, a poem by Bosniak author Melika Salihbeg Bosnawi)

Earlier this month, 30 victims were buried in the same soil from which they were expelled that hot July Tuesday back in 1995, in the presence of their surviving family members with tears on their faces and sincere dua’as on their lips. It had been a long battle for them to be found, identified, their skeletons assembled from multiple mass graves, and finally buried in Potočari, near the murdered town of Srebrenica. 

Prelude: Political Instability and Uncertainty

2023 has been a very tumultuous year so far, marked by tension and never-ending political instability. The recent crisis that was sparked by the genocide denial law and the electoral reform was only made worse by the Bosnian Serb officials who continue to block the government’s official bodies. On June 23, Milorad Dodik, the current president of Republika Srpska, proposed a law stating that this entity will no longer apply the rulings of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, supposedly because three out of its nine members are foreign judges appointed by the European Court of Human Rights. This proposal was accepted by Republika Srpska officials and adopted a few days later. In response, the High Representative in charge of overseeing the application of the Dayton Agreement, Christian Schmidt, suspended this law on July 1. Political blockades and constant threats of secession and potential war are on the rise and seem to be getting worse every year.

Milorad Dodik

In addition to political instability, the situation regarding genocide denial is extremely alarming. Although there were many public instances of genocide denial, no one has actually been charged since the law was enacted in 2021. The Prosecutor’s Office filed a case against Milorad Dodik for his continuous genocide denial, but there haven’t been any updates on this case. Furthermore, a couple of weeks before July 11, the Bosnian Serb mayor of Srebrenica and genocide denier himself, Mladen Grujičić,  described the Mothers of Srebrenica organization (founded by female relatives of victims) as “an engine of hate”. It is therefore easy to picture the atmosphere in the country in preparation for this year’s commemoration.

Thirty Victims Buried This Year

There were, however, many people and activist groups who decided to commemorate genocide and pay their respects to those killed. Around 4,000 people participated in this year’s March of Peace, a 100-kilometer-march that retraces the steps of Bosnian Muslims who left the city and tried to escape through the Serb-occupied territory to Tuzla. Over 700 motorcyclists from numerous European countries arrived at the commemoration, followed by marathon runners from Vukovar, Croatia and Goražde. A peace walk was organized in Dubrovnik as well.

March of Peace

So far, 6,721 victims of the Srebrenica genocide, whose remains were found in 95 different mass graves, have been buried in the Potočari Memorial Centre’s cemetery. This year, 71 graves were opened to bury additional remains. There are also around 400 sets of remains, most of which have been identified, at the Podrinje Identification Project facilities in the city of Tuzla, awaiting burial in the future. It is estimated that a thousand more victims are yet to be found, identified, and buried. This July 11, Bosniaks buried 30 victims in the Potočari cemetery. The oldest victim buried this year is Nezir Muminović, who was 65 years old at the time of his murder. Father Vejsil (at the time of his murder he was 52) and son Hasib Mujanović (at the time of his murder 30) were buried together. Amongst the victims that were buried this year were four minors, the youngest being Elvir Salčinović, a boy who was only fifteen years old at the time of his murder and disposal in the mass grave at Liplje near the town of Zvornik. His remains were exhumed from a mass grave in 2001, and he was identified in 2011, a decade later. His father Turabi and brothers Almir and Senad were also killed in the genocide, alongside his many cousins. Elvir’s uncle Abaz Jusufović said of his nephew:

“He was a child of fifteen years, and quite social. My sister’s family lost her husband Turabi, sons Almir, Senad, and Elvir. Senad hasn’t been found yet. My sister was murdered in Srebrenik. The whole family was murdered, only one more brother remains.”

The Aftermath

The aftermath of this year’s commemoration has been particularly negative and hateful. On July 11, the saddest day in modern Bosnian history, two female Bosnian Serb students of the University of Sarajevo posted disturbing photos on their social media regarding the Srebrenica genocide, praising the war criminal Ratko Mladić’s immortality and heroism. There are now two ongoing cases related to this incident, one led by the University of Sarajevo and the other by the Prosecutor’s Office. In the meantime, it was confirmed that both students accepted an offer by the Director of the Security Intelligence Agency of Serbia Aleksandar Vulin, and that they will be continuing their education in Belgrade, with their living expenses and tuition paid for. 

Furthermore, on the same day of the commemoration, after most of the visitors and mourners had gone home, a Serb Orthodox Church in the center of Srebrenica held a concert, playing nationalistic, anti-Muslim songs, supposedly while “commemorating” the deaths of Serbs who died in the region in 1992.

These are just some of the ways the victims and survivors are betrayed and insulted every day, and it is mortifying to see these provocations and hateful acts increase during the month of July.

Of course, the most neglected participants in this entire discourse are the victims’ families, who are faced with trauma, poverty, genocide denial, verbal and sometimes physical harassment at the hands of those who participated (or praise those who participated) in killing their family members. They fall into oblivion once the janazah prayer in Potočari is finished. We have a debt to remember them and their stories. 

We have a debt to remember boys like Elvir, whose childhoods were snatched away, and they were forced to live out their last months in a warzone, starving and scared, only to be hunted and murdered, their skeletons never to be whole again. We have to remember fathers and sons who died together, like Vejsel and Hasib, and try to imagine the terror of a powerless father whose child is gunned down before him, not knowing that decades later they will be buried together. Think also of men like a 65-year-old Nezir, whose old age and white beard did not save them from being separated from their wives, beaten and tortured before taking their final breaths. And lastly, think of the mothers, sisters, and daughters, who after every July 11 return to their villages around Srebrenica, and find houses with no fathers, brothers, and sons, yet they still find strength to seek justice and continue to search for their bones. 

Their plight should be publicized and kept in the news for longer than one day in a year.

Related:

– Bosnia: A Last Call For Action – MuslimMatters.org

– Oped: The Treachery Of Spreading Bosnia Genocide Denial In The Muslim Community – MuslimMatters.org