Srebrenica massacre to be marked in Istanbul

Youth of Bosnian descent have initiated a project to protest genocide and commemorate the 16th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre in Istanbul with a number of public events.

Some 8,372 pairs of shoes, representing the exact number of people killed in the quiet Bosnian town in 1995, will be collected and placed in Istanbul’s busy spots while 192 balloons will be released into the air in Taksim Square’s Gezi Park on July 9 and 10. “[Through] this project we want to re-attract attention [to] what happened in our country, to shame all those who are responsible for not intervening and send a message of peace to the whole world that neither Bosnia nor Srebrenica [will] ever happen again,” Elma Jelovac, a student at Ankara’s Hacettepe University, told the Hürriyet Daily News via e-mail.

Srebrenica is a small mountainous town in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina that was the scene of the worst massacre in Europe since World War II during the late stages of the Bosnian war. Some 8,372 people were killed in the town, according to official reports.

“It is [significant] that we use shoes for some... people [who] did not even have [their] shoes [on] when they were killed,” Jelovac, 24, added. The balloons that will be released in Taksim will bear slogans such as “Never again” and “We have not forgotten; we will not let it be forgotten.”

“Bosnian Muslims were killed for their names, for their religion, or in other words, for not being Serbs,” Jelovac said.

“We want to remember the fact that Srebrenica was proclaimed a United Nations ‘safe area’ in 1993, and despite this, no [measures were] taken against Bosnian Serbs and [the] paramilitary group, the ‘Scorpions,’ that was directly supported by the Serbian ministry. We want the U.N. to accept its responsibility and never make the same mistake again,” said Jelovac, who accused the United Nations Protection Force, or UNPROFOR, of standing on the sidelines while the massacre was being carried out.

Fate of women

Srebrenica was occupied in the early days of the war by Serb forces, but it was later retaken by Bosnian resistance groups. Refugees expelled from nearby towns and villages also sought shelter in Srebrenica, swelling the town’s population. In July 1995, however, the town was captured by the Republika Srpska Army, the Bosnian Serb forces under the command of Ratko Mladic, and all men “of fighting age” were systematically massacred despite its “safe area” status. Mladic is currently being tried by The Hague on war crimes.

“The fact that war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country which geographically, historically and culturally is part of Europe, lasted for more than three years, is a shame first of all for Europe, and then the whole world. It is hard to understand that the world which [propogates] human rights and freedoms lets genocide happen in its [backyard,]” Jelovac said. Some 50,000 women and young girls were raped during the war, according to official sources cited by Jelovac, who said age was not important for the perpetrators. “Women and small girls were powerless to resist the violence and some of them committed suicide. Most of the women were killed after being raped,” Jelovac said. “We are young but we will not let Srebrenica be forgotten,” Sanela Husic, 24, added. k HDN


/Hurriyet Daily News/