Rosensaft: The Republika Srpska scum of Bosnian Chetniks killed Bosniaks because their prophet was Muhammad, there is no forgiveness for that!

(Patria) - Vice President of the World Jewish Congress Menachem Rosensaft addressed today the commemoration marking the 28th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, the burial and funeral of another 30 victims of the Srebrenica genocide.

"Presidents Komšić, Bećirović, Chairman Zvizdić, Mr. Schmidt… Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, above all the mothers of Srebrenica, surviving families and descendants of the victims of the Srebrenica genocide, this Srebrenica elegy is for you.

The sun shone in its sky. Far from the executions, the sun still shines in its sky above the Potočari tombstones, and what we will never know but can only imagine is their fear, what we will never feel but can only imagine are their tears. What we will never hear but can only imagine are the shots of those who killed a man or a boy standing next to them. What we will never know, but can only imagine, is the silence, the emptiness that ensued, the silence, the emptiness that remains, all hopes never realized, all prayers unanswered. They knew from the moment they were taken away that they would not be allowed to live. They knew it from the coldness in the eyes of their killers, they knew it from the laughter of their executioners, they knew it because unleashed hatred, every unleashed supremacy leads to Pilica, leads to Jasenovac, leads to Kigali.

Their mothers, wives, sisters, daughters knew from the moment their sons, husbands, brothers, fathers were snatched from their hands that they would not be allowed to live. They knew it from the malice, the curses of the Republika Srpska scum of Bosnian Chetniks as they led away men and boys at gunpoint. They knew it from the lust in the eyes of the Bosnian Chetniks as they stared at mothers, wives, sisters, daughters. The liquidated Bosniak men and boys are not the first, nor will they be the last. But they call out from their graves, to be remembered for what they were, for the tears they shed, for the shots they heard, for the silence that ensued, for the emptiness that ensued, for the darkness that ensued, for everything they were not allowed to become.

A Bosniak boy in Pilica, a Jewish child in Ponary, a Serbian baby in Jasenovac, a Tutsi girl in Kigali, are on our conscience. They are our conscience, our compass. If we forget them, our souls will turn to stone. Our eyes will never shed tears again.

My student Adisada was the first from whom I learned about Srebrenica. My homeland is destroyed, she taught me. Thousands of Bosniak women and girls were raped and destroyed, she taught me. Thousands of Bosniak men and boys were killed, she taught me about the enemy to deprive every Bosniak Muslim of life, just as so many Jews were killed by an enemy intent on depriving every Jew of life, just as so many Tutsis perished at the hands of the enemy.
On July 10, 1995, young radio amateur Nihad Nino Ćatić warned: 'Srebrenica is becoming a mass slaughterhouse.' On March 14, 1943, Mordechai Anielewicz from the Warsaw Ghetto: 'If significant help does not arrive immediately, we will consider it indifference to the fate of the Jews in Warsaw.' On July 10, 1995, Nino Ćatić in his last address: 'Will anyone in the world come and witness the tragedy happening in Srebrenica, the people of this city are disappearing.' On July 11, 1995, Nino Ćatić headed towards Tuzla and disappeared. In Srebrenica, Pilica, Potočari, we are all the killed Bosniaks. In Birkenau, Treblinka, Belsen, we are all the killed Jews. In Butare, Kigali, the Roman Catholic Church, we are all the killed Tutsis. In Jasenovac, we are all the killed Serbs, Jews, Roma. In Adana, Hadjin, we are all the killed Armenians: The dead must not become statistics. Eight thousand is as abstract as six million.

We remember all the husbands, fathers, brothers, sons led to the slaughter. We remember all the women humiliated, dishonored, brutally raped by the Republika Srpska scum, the Bosnian Chetniks. We remember the rapists, the executioners, who betrayed Christ every time they slit the throat of a Bosniak, a boy, every time they dishonored a Bosniak woman, every time they kicked a child.

Just as there can be no forgiveness, there can be NO redemption EVER for the SS men in Birkenau, the Ustashas in Jasenovac, for the Interahamwe in Butare, there is no forgiveness, no redemption for the executioners in Srebrenica, in Pilica, for the rapists in Foča. There are no excuses. Not one, never. For the murders of men and boys, for the rape of women, for the beating of innocents.

We will not forget, we will not forgive you who still defend the murderers today, try to rationalize the slaughter, try to find excuses for the rape. For you who refuse to acknowledge, atone for the murders, the rape… For you who glorify Mladić with murals in Banja Luka, Bosanska Gradiška, Kalinovik and Belgrade. For you whose words still kill the dead, again and again. For you, who through your lies, denial of genocide become accomplices to the perpetrators after the murders, rapes, war crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, genocide.

I remember them, I will remember them. We remember them, we must remember them. We remember them, we will remember them, we must remember them. So that no one can, no one must EVER say that they were, deny that they were killed, slaughtered only because of who they were, only because their prophet was Muhammad, and not Christ. If we forget them, our souls will turn to stone, our eyes will never shed tears again.

We remember Nura Mustafić, her husband Hasan, her sons Mirsad, Alija and Fuad. Nura trusted the Dutch battalion, believed that the United Nations would send planes to protect them, but the UN betrayed them. Bosnian Serb-Chetniks captured Alija and Fuad, killed Alija and Mirsad. Nura buried Hasan, Mirsad and Fuad, never lost hope that Alija would return.

We remember Vahida Ahmetović who watched her exhausted father, who was a threat to no one, being led away. They both knew they would never see each other again.
When Milorad Dodik says there was no genocide, he tells Mevludin Orić that he was not left lying among the dead in Srebrenica. He tells Saliha Osmanović that she did not see Mladić in Potočari, that Bosnian Chetniks did not kill Rama and Nermin, that she did not remain a widow who goes to bed in tears every night.

When Peter Handke tells Bosniaks that the perpetrators are the same as Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Serbs that they are the same victims as Bosniaks, he equates the murderers with the murdered, he denies Saliha's truth that her son and husband were killed because they were Bosniaks. He denies the truth of Hasan Nuhanović that his parents and brother were killed by the Republika Srpska scum in the genocide. He acquits Mladić, Karadžić, he acquits the Bosnian Chetniks, the Republika Srpska scum of guilt.

When Željka Cvijanović says that Srebrenica was revenge for earlier violence against Bosnian Serbs, she justifies the murder of 14-year-old Senad Beganović, 15-year-old Damir Sujić, 16-year-old Azmir Osmanović, 16-year-old Salim Mustafić, she justifies the murder of children.

They all saw the weapons aimed at them, they all shed tears, they all felt the final pain. We must now close our eyes, immerse ourselves in their tears, try to feel what they saw, their fear, pain, their longing for just one embrace…

The sun shone in its sky above the murders, the sun still shines in its sky above the Potočari tombstones, and if we forget them, if we forget even one of them, if we forget Srebrenica, our souls will turn to stone, our eyes will never shed tears again," Rosensaft stated.