"Tears spring to my eyes. But I have been preparing for this. I feel like a boxer who knows he is about to be hit, each muscle tightening so as not to crumble when the actual blow lands; ready to hit back. Not to think but to act."
I was ready. I had no choice. I had to go in prepared, rehearsed and researched. Three massacre sites in 16 months; but this time I was living and working where it happened for three weeks in and around the burial ceremony of 534 Muslim men and boys.
I am in Srebrenica. The site of the worst massacre since World War II. Over 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in an act of genocide by the Serb Army in a "protected"UN Safe Zone filled with refugees. I didn't brake when I saw the shockingly casual site of burned houses, the intimate naked skeletons of three story houses. The shell markings and bullet holes. I walked the streets of
Srebrenica, passing the destroyed houses. I continued with my daily routine, trying to forget that the house in front of mine lost 3 boys. I explained to the women behind our house that I was locked out and found a kitten, not dwelling on the fact that her family buried a husband and son of 16 years this July. I continue shopping for groceries even after realizing the man in the juice aisle has no left arm and that he is a man, alive. I joined the 30, 000 people at the Memorial Ceremony. I tolerated the VIPs at a funeral. I met people, made introductions. I witnessed the line of coffins, 534 filing by me with my meager offerings - my camera, my witness, this voice. I didn't brake, didn't cry. I had no right to cry, I have lost nothing. I finally broke over a video I saw on Youtube. It was recorded during the genocide; a father was yelling for his son to come down from hiding in the woods, screaming that it was safe while surrounded by Serb soldiers that would eventually add him to mass graves. Genocide had found Youtube, and I couldn't take it. If we can casually watch people being slaughtered and do nothing the next time, what kind of sick game is this? When taught about the Holocaust, why are we not also taught about the concentration camps in Argentina, the 677 in Bosnia? Where is the follow up on genocides in Rwanda, the killing fields of Cambodia or the one happening now in Darfur?We need to stop saying "Never Again." Never Again has witnessed Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Algeria and Darfur. I think "Until Next Time" is more appropriate. Justice has not been served in Srebrenica. War criminals walk around the town, Bosnia, and even serve as President of Serbia. The day after the burial ceremony, Serb nationalists came into Srebrenica and yelled, "don't worry Europe, we can do it ... we will rid the Balkans of Muslims"
Please act to end the current genocide in Darfur. Start by signing the petition.
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This post was originally written after the Srebrenica funeral and memorial service. It was somehow deleted from my original post in July.
