Daily Times

It has been 23 years since Europe witnessed the worst massacre within its borders since the Second World War.  The Srebrenica genocide that occurred on the UN’s watch in Bosnia-Herzegovina ended with the slaughter of more than 8,000 Muslims at the hands of Bosnian Serb militias. And still the number of (collective) funerals keeps rising. This year alone has seen some 35 additional victims identified; taking the number of burials at the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial Centre to 6,610.

“Never Forget”. This was the slogan that rose from the ashes of the genocide. Yet, today, Europe appears to want to do the exact opposite. For the European Parliament (EP) has reportedly kowtowed to pressure from within to refuse to hold a scheduled commemorative exhibition: “Genocide in Srebrenica: Eleven Lessons for the Future” was duly cancelled due to “too many skulls and bones” being on display. Sarajevo has now opened its doors to the exhibition. Though the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina do not need to be reminded in the same way that Europe does of the horrors committed there. Such as, the killing of at least 100,000 and rape of 50,000 women.

In short, it is the enlightened continent that must be made to recall the very real role that it as well as the NATO war machine played in the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia — that last bastion of Communism — in a bid to establish a new world order. This is a point underscored by Hikmet Karcic, an author and genocide researcher from Sarajevo who is also the man behind the exhibition.

After all, he says that the European bone of contention rests on the display focusing on the path to genocide instead of its direct fallout; thereby prompting the EP to pull the plug on the entire affair. Karcic also alleges that he received a request to remove photos of Serbian war criminals such as Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic; as well as those of mass graves. It has even been suggested that if the exhibition went ahead it might jeopardise Bosnia’s integration into the Euro-Atlantic system. Well, then.

This will simply not do. To be sure, the path of rewriting history is a dangerous one. For in conveniently abdicating those in the West of any moral responsibility and obligation towards the people whose blood they spill it risks repeating past mistakes. It also dashes any future hopes of an eventual truth and reconciliation commission regarding, say, the Alliance’s ongoing military misadventures in the Middle East. But, then, those who rule the world believe that they have every right to hold this position. And any amount of collateral damage to keep them there is seemingly a price worth paying.  *

Published in Daily Times, July 13^th 2018.