Srebrenica Memorial week...

WOW! It has been a very long time since I have updated the blog. I’m gonna go ahead and make several posts today to catch-up on all of my adventures since the end of June…which was the last time I wrote it appears.

Part of the reason that it has taken me so long to write again is b/c the events of the first weeks of July were so intense that I did not know how to even begin talking about them. But now I think I have enough distance to be able to give the abbreviated version and hopefully do it some justice…

So…In a previous post I think I may have talked a little about the history and controversy surrounding the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica. In a nutshell, a series of agreements between the UN and the Serbian forces during the Bosnian war had led to a series of “safe areas” for Bosniaks that would be protected from Serb aggressions by UN forces.

Now, prior to 1995 a series of ethnic-cleansing atrocities had been committed by both Serb and Bosniak forces in the region surrounding Srebrenica, and there were both Serbian and Bosniak civilian casualties resulting. But, by 1995, Srebrenica had been declared a “safe area” for Bosniaks and Dutch UN soldiers had been charged to protect it. The town’s population swelled to 10 times its pre-war population. In July 1995 the “safe area” Srebrenica was seized by Bosnian-Serb forces. The Dutch UN forces helped maintain calm among the Bosniaks, helped separate the Bosniak men from the women and children and then provided gasoline to transport the women to Bosniak territory. Meanwhile, 8,000 – 10,000 Bosniak men and boys were executed. Those who tried to escape through the woods were hunted for several weeks.

Obviously the story has a lot more detail and nuance to it, but in a nutshell, the events in Srebrenica in 1995 has been classified as Genocide by the United Nations and the role of the Dutch forces has also been heavily critiqued.

OK…so why am I telling you this?

Well, a main focal point of residual war controversy in Serbia revolves around denial of Serbia’s role in these events. Meanwhile, every July 11th at the Potocari Memorial Cemetery – in Eastern Bosnia, right outside Srebrenica – there is a ceremony held in which the dead are commemorated and the remains of those who have been found and identified in the past year are buried.

Now, in my work with WiB we hold a commemorative demonstration in memory of Srebrenica’s victims on the 11th of every month. From noon – 1pm on the 11th of each month the WiB stand in silence, wearing black and holding signs the beg attention to Srebrenica’s victims. While there was certainly a time when these demonstrations were controversial and even dangerous (featuring Serbian nationalist thugs in opposition to WiB) at this point there is a police presence each month which protects WiB and while there is the occasional insult hurled at the demonstrators, the events are largely quite safe.

Well, as July 11th is the official anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, the date garners much international attention. From the beginning of the week international visitors from Italy, Spain, Israel, India, USA, Iran, U.K., and many other places had come to Belgrade to stand in solidarity with WiB for this commemoration. We were also joined by several survivors – women who had lost their sons, brothers, fathers, husbands. Women who before the war were simple village women, home makers, sometimes even illiterate, who were now staunch activists with more strength that I could even imagine!

Throughout the week we hosted discussion groups, films, and even a conference on women and peace, and day-by-day our numbers grew. Finally, on July 10th we held the year’s most important WiB demonstration. The afternoon demonstration was pretty much a lot like other months, but with more police presence. But it was the afternoon demonstration that was really something different!

Before the demonstration was due to begin at 7pm, the square was already filled with young angry representatives of some of Serbia’s most vicious, violent nationalist organizations. As the time to begin approached and WiB numbers swelled along with counter-demonstrating nationalists a brigade of riot police soon showed-up to stand between the two groups. The WiB stood in silence, each holding a white rose. The nationalists held signs with the face of Ratko Mladic (the Serbian commander who led the siege of Srebrenica), shouting threats of abuse, rape and murder at the WiB as well as chanting such things as “witches, bitches, whores, liars” and “wait till we get you when the police are not around” and other such things.

As I stood there my knees were shaking. There was so much hate in their faces and they stared right into our eyes. I wanted to shout back, but meeting their threats with dignified silence and solidarity was actually a much stronger message. I was afraid, terrified at first. But the thought that these women, the WiB, had been standing up for the victims for over 15 years, even when there was no police to protect them, even when they were beaten by nationalist thugs, made me proud of them and gave me strength.

At 8pm each woman one-by-one moved forward and placed her rose in a circle to create a beautiful visual display. When we were finished the police surrounded the counter-protestors and led the WiB back to our headquarters. We left in small groups after several hours and the police continued to sit outside the offices.

Police keep the line between nationalist counter-protestors and WiB activists

Here you can see some of the counter-protestors - one wearing the flag with the symbol of the famed Serbian nationalist group "Obraz" and others holding posters with images of Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic

Here you can see the WiB line during the demonstration with the sign reading "Do not forget Srebrenica." There were hundreds of us in a semi-circle.

Here you can see the circle of roses that were placed at the end of the ceremony.

The next morning, at 6am, we were to gather at a designated spot to meet the chartered bus that was to take us to Bosnia to attend the official Srebrenica commemoration at the Potocari Memorial Cemetery. Although the trip is about 4 hours and the ceremony was not due to start until noon, we were detained at the border and harassed somewhat by Serbian officials. When we finally neared Potocari traffic was backed-up for miles and it was 11:45am. We began to panic, thinking that we would not make it in time. And this is where the story begins to turn…

With only 5 minutes until the ceremony and no movement in traffic a police escort approaches our bus. They cleared on-coming traffic, and led our bus strait to the cemetery. As we rushed off the bus the ceremony was already underway. The Bosnian police parted the crowd, over 50,000 people in attendance, and ushered us in to the center of the memorial space. As we unfurled the banners we had brought expressing solidarity with the victims’ families, mothers of the victims pushed through the crowds to join us. Some were crying and thanking us and saying things like “we were so worried you wouldn’t come this year.”

That was the moment I realize how much the work of WiB means to the victims’ families. All the hate and anger that was projected toward us the previous day in Belgrade, all the fear I felt standing there in front of the nationalist thugs, all the times in the past months I had wondered whether WiB was still a relevant organization – all of that was pushed aside when I saw that what we did mattered to the people who were most affected by the events.

Driving this point home, after about an hour I heard someone calling my name and people began to pull me through the crowd. At first I thought that one of our international visitors needed translation or help. Getting through the crowd was like squeezing through a wall of people. When I got to the other side I was greeted by the American ambassador to Bosnia and a delegation from the US congress. I was so nervous! They wanted to meet me and told me how proud they were that an American was working with WiB and that the work of WiB means so much to the Bosnian people.

To describe the ceremony itself – it begins with a very sad song about a mother looking for her children. Then there is a series of speeches from world leaders. Then there is the Muslim call to prayer and the men go to the front. There is a series of prayers, and then the names of those who will be buried that year are announced. This year over 500 victims’ bodies had been identified for burial. The caskets – thin because they are only bones now and green as it is the symbolic color of Islam – are then carried by the surviving men of the victims’ families to their burial sites where the women wait. The families then bury their dead by hand.

Here you can see the memorial stone near the enterance of Potocari Memorial Cemetery with several wreaths from different groups that had been placed there - the WiB wreath is the one most prominent in this photo.

A rose placed at one of the graves of a victim buried in a previous year.

Here you can see the line of caskets in the background as well as some tombstones. The piles of dirt are places where a casket will be buried that day.

Men carrying the casket of a victim - likely their relative.

Another image of the caskets being carried.

In this image you can see the crowd. The circle of women in gold dresses sang during the ceremony.

Here you see several women walking among the open graves where bodies will be buried that day.

Here you can see a small part of one of the WiB banners reading "we will not forget" in the background and the memorial stone reading "Srebrenica July 1995" in the foreground.

Another image of the stone.

In all, it was an amazing day. A day that was humbling and sad and beautiful all at once. A day that made me realize truly why I am here, and made me charged to stay work hard to bring justice to these people.

In closing, I am sure that the things I have said here do not even begin to explain what I saw…what I felt…what the events were like. This is why I have not written in so long. I have not known how to talk about these events, but did not feel I could talk about anything else until I did. Again I am sure I have not done them justice, but I had to start somewhere.

As always…thanks for reading…