Touching events will be held in the North East to commemorate the Bosnian genocide, which saw thousands of people killed and displaced in 1995.
An annual Srebrenica Memorial Week takes place this week, with this year marking the 27th anniversary of the culmination of the genocide in the town of Srebrenica.
The main community event in the North East takes place at 6.30pm on Tuesday at Newcastle Cathedral, before a flag-raising ceremony with the Lord Mayor outside Newcastle Civic Centre on July 10 at 11am.
There will also be commemorative event on the evening of July 11 at Sunderland Minster. Flags will also be flown across the North East with many key landmarks illuminated in green and white colours during the memorial week.
Smajo Beso, chair of the Bosnian Genocide Educational Trust and chair of the North East Board of the Remembering Srebrenica charity said: “We hope by bringing people of faith and of none together, we can rediscover our commonalities, challenge hatred and intolerance, and encourage personal acts of peace in our everyday lives here in the UK.
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“It is incredible to see so many events planned across the North East during the memorial week – from Sunderland, Durham, Gateshead, and of course here in Newcastle. The Bosnian community has been in the North East for nearly 30 years, and I always say we’re an invisible community, what I mean by that is, that we are a well-integrated community because of the help and support that we have been given by the amazing people of the North East.
“We’re a small community but we all proudly call the North East our home. But events like this are also critical for reflecting and learning lessons from Bosnia, lessons that are more relevant than ever before, to ensure that we do not allow hatred to divide our communities.
"The Bosnian war exposed just how vulnerable and fragile society can be and that we must never be complacent or take peace for granted. One of the key lessons from Bosnia is that peace is more than just the absence of war: it is our everyday actions through which war is made less likely. We must all be vigilant and must not let hate, racism, and bigotry go on unchallenged. We all have a part to play.”
The Bosnian Genocide culminated in the town of Srebrenica on July 11 1995, where in just over a week, thousands of Bosniak (Muslim), predominantly men and boys, were systematically executed and over 25,000 women, children and elderly forcibly deported by nationalist Bosnian-Serb forces, Serbian paramilitaries and their foreign “volunteers”. Victims were buried in primary, secondary, and in some cases tertiary mass graves, in order to conceal their crime while women and young girls were exposed to a different form of genocide through sexual violence and rape.
In three-and-a-half years of aggression against Bosnia, more than 100,000 people were killed, tens of thousands of women and young girls were raped, more than two million people were displaced or became refugees, as well as destruction of people's cultural heritage. At the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995, 31,500 people were reported missing - since then, the remains of 25,000 victims have been exhumed from hundreds of mass graves across the country. There are still nearly 7,000 missing people.
Coun Alan Shield, the cabinet member for equality and inclusion at Durham County Council, said: “This year marks 27 years since the genocide at Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which over 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were systematically murdered. However, a denial of this atrocity remains prevalent.
“A failure to face up to the past has led to more pain and suffering for survivors of the genocide, who have already experienced the worst of humanity. That is why it is imperative that we never forget the horrors of 1995 and we continue to work together to reaffirm our commitment to tackling prejudice and discrimination.”
Durham County Council and Durham University will mark the anniversary by raising Remembering Srebrenica flags on a number of key buildings. The flag will be flown at County Hall across the week and at other university locations.
A display featuring information about what happened in Srebrenica and the wider Bosnian war, including survivor stories, will be on display at the council’s Clayport Library, in Durham, throughout the week.
All are welcome to the Newcastle Cathedral event and admission is free - you can register here. The evening will feature testimonies from Bosnian survivors, including readings, poems, performances, and films. Bosnian food, prepared by the local Bosnian community, and light refreshments will be available from 6pm.
For more information, see the Bosnian Genocide Educational Trust website ( https://www.bget-uk.org/ ) or email info@bget-uk.org
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