Austrijski parlament

Transcript

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.