Genocide in Bosnia - 28 years ago

Twenty-eight years ago, Serbian paramilitary forces and whatever was left of the Yugoslav Army murdered 8,000 Muslim men and boys in a space of few days in the region around Bosnian town of Srebrenica committing a legally recognized genocide. July 11 is the day of remembrance for the victims of that genocide and the victims of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Croatia and Bosnian Croats played a shameful role in that conflict committing war crimes and ethic cleansing operations and today continue, sometimes subtly and sometimes not so subtly, to undermine the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Memorial Centre Srebrenica has done an admirable job of keeping the memory of those events and the victims alive. They collaborated with VII Agency and created a permanent photography exhibit featuring the work of VII photographers. Some of that work was instrumental in securing war crime convictions at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. VII’s work continues to keep the spotlight on the crimes committed in Bosnia. The latest example is this excellent story that was recently published in RollingStone. Through their phenomenal educational series of webinars and videos they have also been extensively featuring the work of their photographers in Bosnia. For example, here is their look at reporting on the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and here is a session with Paul Lowe on bearing witness.

I made the photograph above in 2006 when I was working on a couple of stories for Canadian media. These are markers at the Koševo cemetery in Sarajevo. The siege of Sarajevo lasted 1,425 days. During the siege, Serbian forces killed 11,541 Sarajevans, 1,500 of them children. The cemetery was built on the former auxiliary football pitch next to the Olympic Stadium and is a resting place for many of the Sarajevo victims. A man named Džemil runs a remarkable website called Sniper Alley commemorating the victims of the siege.

Since this is a dark post, I want to note one more thing today. The US has this weekend approved the delivery of cluster bombs to Ukraine. I am thankful that the Canadian Prime Minister Justine Trudeau has spoken against the use of cluster munitions. I am not an expert on cluster bombs, but I have some experience of living in the aftermath of their use. Cluster bombs release many small bomblets – In Croatia, they were colloquially known as jingle bells (zvončići) – that are supposed to cover large area causing significant damage to infrastructure, especially things like airstrips. That’s the theory. In practice, they are used on all sorts of targets and the portion of unexploded bomblets is alarmingly high - as much as 23 per cent. There is no way to accurately map where they end up and so, for decades after a conflict is over, they maim and kill farmers, civilians and children. At this time, 111 countries, including Canada and all of the countries of the former Yugoslavia except Serbia, have ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The US, Ukraine and Russia are not among the signatories.