1,500 Young People from Around the World Learned the Truth About Genocide!

The Post-Conflict Research Center has, over the past four years, hosted more than 1,500 young people from around the world who have visited sites of war crimes, genocide locations, and mass graves in Bosnia and Herzegovina, reports the BH News Agency Patria (NAP).

Project Manager of the Center, Velma Šarić, speaks to the BH News Agency Patria about the Center's activities since its inception in 2010, which, through contacts with young experts and researchers from reputable universities, preserves and disseminates the truth about the events during the aggression against BiH.

Šarić says that students from Harvard University, Georgetown University, New York University, the University of Copenhagen, etc., have visited BiH. The Center has ongoing cooperation with the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), and has received funding for projects from the State Department, the Embassies of Norway and Switzerland in BiH, the National Democratic Institute in Washington, the UN...

- The Center is a base that organizes logistics for visits and educational lectures. Every group's visit to Srebrenica is essential, where they have the opportunity to see the scale of the crimes in BiH firsthand. Then, we go to Podrinje to the ICMP identification center where, in a refrigerated truck, they see what the human mind can plan and do. To see the consequences of genocide – says Šarić.

She points out that the groups also visit the sites of the Omarska, Trnopolje, and Keraterm concentration camps.

- We try to highlight some forgotten crime sites, such as Ahmići and Stupni Do. Visits to Sušica in Vlasenica and the Tuzla Gate. We strive to preserve memory and convey the truth to young people. If they gain true knowledge and meet the victims, then the character of the war in BiH becomes clear to them – says Šarić.

In addition to these projects, photo exhibitions are organized showing portraits from the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, and BiH. Last year, the exhibition was displayed in the main squares of several BiH cities (Srebrenica, Bratunac, Brčko, Bijeljina, Trebinje, Tuzla...)

- Through such projects, we try to encourage young people to find similar stories and tell them in their own way. We try to teach young people to take risks and show moral responsibility – states Šarić for NAP.

One of the programs includes documentary films. Šarić also worked as a consultant on Angelina Jolie's film "In the Land of Blood and Honey." She emphasizes that women's and mothers' associations from Srebrenica, who have experienced and survived the worst horrors of war, also participate in all projects.

Incidentally, the first project of the Post-Conflict Research Center was the project "Ordinary Heroes," funded by the State Department in 2010. It is a Yale University project that deals with the specific theme of moral courage and rescue. It tells the stories of people, ordinary people, who, during times of war, genocide, and conflict, stood up and showed moral courage and saved another human being.

- We are particularly proud of the story that received the U.S. Secretary of State's Medal of Honor from Hillary Clinton in 2011. It is the story of Mina Jahić and Ferid Spahić. In 1992, Mina hid Ferid Spahić, who had escaped from an execution in Sokolac. A group of 79 men from Rogatica and Goražde were taken to the Paklenica natural pit and all were systematically executed. The only person who escaped was Ferid. Mina was not afraid, even though they were surrounded by Serb villages. He was with her for three months. She risked her own life and the lives of her sons – says Šarić, as reported by NAP.