Council to host talk Srebrenica as part of International Lessons programme

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council is organising a series of talks on human rights atrocities around the world as part of its International Lessons Programme designed to help people here to understand the past from a global perspective and to understand and learn lessons from it.

The first of these talks ‘Lessons of Srebrenica: Acknowledgement, Justice and Peacebuilding’ will take place online on Tuesday 21 September at 10.00am.

In July 1995 the genocide of Bosniak muslims took place in and around the town of Szrebenica, Bosnia, part of the former Yugoslavia, a region that many people go to on holiday.  In the space of a few days thousands of people, mainly men and boys were killed.  All but one was Muslim. The 8,372 victims are remembered each year in Bosnia and around the world.

Speaking about the event Fermanagh and Omagh District Council’s Chair, Cllr Errol Thompson said;

The genocide at Srebrenica 26 years ago remains a salutary reminder of the inhumanity and cruelty of war. It serves as an important reminder of the need to find a peaceful resolution to all differences with tolerance and respect as a basis for conflict resolution.

I would encourage anyone with an interest in peace building to tune in to this online event and learn about the lessons of this particularly harrowing period in recent European history.”

The build-up to the genocide included words we will find familiar in Northern Ireland – polarisation, classification, discrimination, the use of symbols, dehumanising language and much more. We hope that participants at this talk will learn of what led to genocide at Srebrenica, the impact of hate speech, the use of polarising symbols and give them the confidence to challenge prejudice and discrimination.

We will hear from one of the Srebrenica survivors, Nedžad Avdić, about what happened and how he survived. We will ask, 26 years later, whether acknowledgement, justice and peace building is possible in Bosnia – and what does Northern Ireland/Ireland have in common. Nedžad’s personal story will be followed by a question-and-answer session and will be facilitated by Peter Osborne, Chair of Remembering Srebrenica in Northern Ireland. Speaking about the event, Peter Osborne said: “Srebrenica is little known yet happened just 26 years ago in the heart of Europe.  The killings were generated by religious and identity differences, fuelled by the language and behaviour of hate and intolerance.  It’s not just about remembering the victims, important as that is.  It is also about understanding and challenging prejudice and racism before it goes as far as what happened at Srebrenica.”

To register to hear Nedzad’s story please contact Fermanagh and Omagh District Council’s Good Relation section by telephone on 0300 303 1777 or by email at goodrelations@fermanaghomagh.com.