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Lessons from Bosnia — unexpected topic
Genocide!
I’m struggling to write about this topic. I didn’t struggle like this with any other topic, but this one is different.
We don’t talk about it much between ourselves. We talk about it with foreigners. We talk about it at events. We talk about it with officials. But we hardly ever mention it in conversations.
I can talk about genocide in academic terms. I know about the Genocide Convention, about the 10 stages of genocide, I know that it’s not about the number of people that a genocidal maniac has managed to kill. I know we need to do more so that punishment fits the crime — at the moment, punishment is nowhere near enough, genocidal maniacs should not be in comfy prisons, we should be learning about them as if they have no sense of pride. Crimes against humanity should be taught in schools as crimes against humanity, against every human being. Even though my people, Bosnian Muslims, were a target of genocide during my lifetime, I’ve never really thought about genocide in personal terms. I’ve never looked at the burden of genocide from a common perspective. Perhaps because it isn’t common. Or perhaps it’s because it’s too hard. Or maybe it’s because we are simply expected to get on with life genocide or not. Hence, I didn’t know what to say on this topic to fit it in with other articles. It took a lot of soul-searching and recalling certain times of a year. Silences are hardest to decode and put into words.
It hurts like crazy when a member of the Bosnian government denies genocide. It’s salt to an open, bleeding wound. We don’t mention that, but the anger it causes speaks for itself. Dayton has forced us to have enemies of our country in the government of our country, which means that our hard earned money goes to those who want us dead. And they get a lot of money from us. They are rich, living a very good life while we all suffer. The injustice of it all is very hard to handle, but we have no choice.
Dayton has rewarded genocide. Yes, Dayton Peace Agreement has made genocide look like a good idea. Hence it has contributed to promotion of genocide.
09th of December is marked as the day of the Genocide Convention, though the convention came to effect on the 12th of January. This year, on the 09th of December…
