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7.14.2005

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Lessons of Srebrenica

Srebrenica remains a tragic reminder that the international community must act to protect innocent civilians immersed in the madness of genocide. As the world commemorates the 10- year anniversary of the massacre, it is time for all of us to vow never again to allow a Srebrenica to occur.

Today the town bears the hallmarks of its tragic past. With 6,000 of its buildings destroyed and gutted, it has been described as a ghost town. The statistics explain everything: before the war 37,000 people lived in Srebrenica, 73 percent of them Bosnians and 23 percent ethnic Serbs. Today, 6,000 Serbs and 4,000 Muslims live there, a bloody reversal of the past ethnic make-up.
UNHCR has been involved in the Balkan crisis from its very earliest days. Along with other humanitarian agencies, it was helping as many as 3.5 million people throughout the entire region at the height of the crisis. The agency launched a 3½-year airlift into the besieged Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, which eventually became the longest-running humanitarian air bridge in history.

We remember Srebrenica best by urging the international community to take decisive action wherever civilians find themselves the victims of deadly persecution.
This vow is even found at the Srebrenica burial site:

May grievance become hope
May revenge become justice
May mothers' tears become prayers
That Srebrenica
Never happens again
To no one and nowhere

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