Anniversary of the Old Bridge Reconstruction Marked with Event "Mostar Does Not Forget Friends"

(Patria) - Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Denis Zvizdić attended tonight in Mostar the event "Mostar Does Not Forget Friends", dedicated to marking 15 years since the reconstruction of the Old Bridge. On this occasion, Chairman Zvizdić presented a special Charter of Peace from the Center for Peace and Multiethnic Cooperation from Mostar to the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center for its persistent struggle in uncovering the truth about missing persons and punishing war crimes.

In his address, Chairman Zvizdić referred to Srebrenica, a terrible and painful wound on the body of Bosnia and Herzegovina that does not heal. He emphasized that Srebrenica was a defeat of humanity and civilizational values, and an obvious expression of hypocrisy of the powerful who could have, but did not stop the criminal killing of innocent civilians, and that is why Srebrenica remains the greatest symbol of the suffering of innocent civilians, Bosniaks, and a symbol that will always remind us of crime and genocide.

Chairman Zvizdić paraphrased the thought of President Alija Izetbegović that those who killed and those who ordered the crime are most guilty, but when something as horrific as Srebrenica happens, then there are no innocents.

Chairman Zvizdić emphasized that the criminals who did this have names and must be held accountable, not the people they come from, so that justice can be served. He added that we will not, cannot, and must not forget Srebrenica, because in the long history of Bosnia and Herzegovina we have already witnessed that forgetting is the best reason for crime to repeat.

Chairman Zvizdić said that back in 1937, Pablo Picasso painted „Guernica“ as an anti-war symbol and a memory of innocently killed civilians, and that the world then said such a thing must not happen, yet Buchenwald, Mauthausen, and Auschwitz happened, where millions of people were killed.

“And again it was said: NEVER AGAIN. And then in Srebrenica, as a protected zone of the United Nations, the greatest genocide in Europe after World War II occurred – a crime that darkened civilizational achievements and erased the concept of humanity. Why? For what reason were 8,372 innocent civilians aged 12 to 80 killed in just 5 days?” said Chairman Zvizdić.

He added that the Mothers of Srebrenica and all humane people are still seeking answers to these questions, seeking truth, justice, and punishment of criminals, so that when they find and bury their loved ones, they can, in the fulfillment of earthly justice, find a small dose of peace.

He emphasized that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, in May 2004, nine years after the crimes in Srebrenica, defined this organized massacre of more than 8,000 people as genocide, and that the European Parliament declared July 11 as the Day of Remembrance of Srebrenica and the genocide.

“We all deeply believe that this time the promise will be fulfilled and that circumstances that could produce a new Srebrenica will never happen again. And we, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, say that we will never again allow genocide to repeat on the soil of our homeland,” emphasized Chairman Zvizdić.

Chairman Zvizdić called on all those for whom peace, coexistence, and prosperity represent a habitus of behavior and political and social action, to let Srebrenica be a permanent warning and testimony of what happens when those who should say what they need to say clearly and loudly fall silent. He repeated the words of Martin Luther King, that “in the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” He emphasized that we will continue to write and speak about Srebrenica, because in every denial or concealment of the truth lies the seed of future hatred and crime, and added that without facing the past, it is not possible to build the future.

Chairman Zvizdić underlined that Srebrenica is a planetary symbol, and that is why we will write and testify about that time of madness so that never again on the soil of modern Europe could a criminal idea and mission emerge aimed at killing innocent children, men, and the elderly.

“Srebrenica will remain the saddest symbol of the pain of every mother who lost her sons and every innocent child who had to grow up without their father, their brothers and sisters, without their loved ones,” added Chairman Zvizdić.

He emphasized that Srebrenica had to be and must be a turning point in Europe's relationship with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in Europe's and the world's relationship with various secessionist tendencies in the Balkans, which can disrupt our efforts to create a state of lasting peace, prosperity, and stability, and added that we in Bosnia and Herzegovina truly want that, and Europe and especially NATO can provide it for us.

At the end of his address, Chairman Zvizdić thanked the mothers, the Memorial Center in Potočari, the civilized world, and all friends who respect human dignity, truth, justice, and the pain of the victims for not allowing Srebrenica to be forgotten.