Suljagić at UN General Assembly: We never gave up the fight, regardless of the odds

(Patria) - Director of the Srebrenica Memorial Center Emir Suljagić addressed the UN General Assembly in New York today at a panel discussion titled "Memorialization of Genocide: Justice, Truth, Healing".

- In the past 29 years, we have had to prove every detail of the suffering we endured, but we did it using scientific methods available to civilization at the time.

As a result, we were able to prove, for example, that fragments of glass found 30 kilometers south of Srebrenica, in a secondary grave, originated from a primary grave located 40 kilometers north of the enclave, and then mass executions were proven - Suljagić pointed out.

According to him, the DNA analysis method was also applied for the first time in the world to prove genocide.

- We also had the advantage of the perpetrators being so convinced that they would never be punished. We know who pulled the trigger, when, where, who operated the machines, and who even supplied the fuel so that people could be buried and then transported further.

We proved all of this, we documented all of this. Mothers traveled hundreds of kilometers to appear before courts in foreign countries to testify in foreign languages about the murder of their children - Suljagić stated.

The fight, he emphasizes, continues, to ensure that Srebrenica is not just a footnote in history or a marginalized part of a prosperous history.

Suljagić noted that 29 years ago, he stood in front of war criminal Ratko Mladić, fully convinced that he would not survive that encounter.

- Today, we have the Srebrenica Memorial Center, and I am its director. Mladić is in a prison cell, and he will simply have to remember the horror he committed along with his fighters. And we survivors move on.

We have found a new purpose in life. We have started families. We have rebuilt our communities. The perpetrators, on the other hand, are trapped in the past and are consumed by their hatred. They still cherish those terrible dark values and the genocide against us - says Suljagić.

He states that they never gave up the fight, regardless of the odds, and that in 1995 "no one believed we had a chance, but here we are today, addressing the United Nations, the whole world, adopting a resolution to commemorate the genocide in Srebrenica".

- Our presence here is proof of the work of generations over the past three decades - Suljagić added.