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00:0011 July this year will mark the 29th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide.
00:09This day is always hardest and heaviest for Bosnians, as it represents one of the darkest
00:14chapters in modern history, the events that horrifically occurred at Srebrenica.
00:20This month we remember all the 8,372 Bosniaks, mainly men and boys, brutally massacred on
00:2911 July 1995 in what was later rightfully deemed a genocide by the International Court
00:36of Justice.
00:38When one thinks about this terrible and tragic event, it is inconceivable to believe what
00:43people are capable of doing to one another because of who they are.
00:48What fuelled Srebrenica was discrimination.
00:51A whole people demonised, treated less than human because of their ethnicity and principally
00:57religion.
00:59Unfortunately, these black marks still exist in our world today.
01:05On 11 July, think of the mothers, because there is nothing that can prepare any mother
01:10for the news that they have lost their husband or their sons or both and that they may lay
01:15somewhere in nameless graves, as many of them would have heard in that terrible time.
01:22The youngest victim of the Srebrenica genocide was two-day-old Fatima Mujic, her tiny coffin
01:29buried alongside nearly 8,000 other graves at the Potocari Memorial Centre.
01:35This year, the United Nations has taken a significant step, acknowledging the gravity
01:40of this atrocity by declaring 11 July as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration
01:48of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica.
01:51I wish to emphasise to Bosnian communities in New South Wales and across the country
01:58that the Australian Government took seriously the step to support the resolution to designate
02:04an official day, 11 July, to honour the memory of the victims and remember their suffering.
02:12Each year, the Australian-Bosnian-Herzegovinian Cultural Association holds commemorations
02:19for the Srebrenica genocide.
02:21This is an incredibly crucial moment to help those still traumatised by the events of Srebrenica,
02:30many who managed to flee somehow and then given the opportunity to rebuild their lives
02:37in our great country.
02:39Their tireless work means that the memories of those who lost their lives are kept alive
02:44and honoured.
02:46We owe it to the victims of Srebrenica and other crimes against humanity that have been
02:50witnessed before our eyes to protect and do whatever we can to speak up and protect
02:56future generations from such horrors.