Every year, the world is united in grief for the victims of genocide. In January, we remember the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. In July, we commemorate the more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys who were killed in Srebrenica. In recent years, memorialisations of the Holocaust and Srebrenica have increasingly involved closer cooperation between educators in both communities.
Freddy Mutanguha, director of the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda, attended the 29th commemoration of the Srebrenica genocide on July 11, as well as the Srebrenica Youth School from July 7-12, 2024. There, he shared his personal story as a genocide survivor and his mission as a human rights activist and peace educator.
From May 28th to August 21st, 1992, over 3,000 Bosnian Muslims and Croats were confined, tortured and killed at the Omarska camp in entity of Republika Srpska. Despite the extent of the atrocities committed at Omarska, the former camp pointedly lacks any form of memorialization as a result of entity of Republika Srpska’s enduring war crimes denial. This marks a symbolic continuation of genocide, perpetuating survivor’s trauma and impeding efforts towards reconciliation.
On May 23, 2012, Emir Hodžić went viral for standing alone in Prijedor’s main square, wearing a white armband on his left arm. The white armband, now used as a symbol of remembrance, commemorated the decree issued by Serb nationalist authorities in Prijedor (Crisis Committee of the Serbian District of Prijedor) on May 31, 1992, ordering the non-Serb population of Prijedor to hang white sheets outside their homes and to wear a white armband.
In 2013, the largest mass grave site in Europe since World War II was discovered on the outskirts of Prijedor in northwest Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
Last month, the Post Conflict Research Center and Sarajevo Memorial Center organized the inaugural International Youth School Prijedor in May 2024. The school included a visit to the Tomašica mass grave, an international conference on the use of detention camps, and participation in the White Armband Day memorial walk.