During a panel discussion on the Srebrenica Genocide on October 2, Muhamed Durakovic warned that countries can disintegrate very easily. “It happens so quickly,” he said. Durakovic, who survived the Srebrenica Genocide, the killing of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in July 1995, urged audience members to “guard” the peace and to “nurture inclusive societies.” Durakovic said that the war in Bosnia was not an ethnic or religious war as has been suggested by some, but rather a conflict between two concepts: an inclusive society where all nationalities and religious groups live together, and an exclusive society where only one ethnic or religious group lives in a particular territory.
Durakovic noted that although most of the world recognizes the Srebrenica atrocities as genocide against Bosnian Muslims, Roma, Catholics, and other non-Serbs were also killed. While many more Muslims were killed, Durakovic said that genocide “is not about numbers, it’s about the intent to eradicate one group based on its religion, race, or ethnicity. In Srebrenica genocide happened against those groups as well.”
Durakovic was speaking during the Lemkin Reunion/Milders Lecture Series that the Center for Conflict, Negotiation and Recovery (CCNR) at the School of Public Policy at CEU co-hosted with the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands.
Read the full article on the CCNR website here.
Watch interviews with the panelists below.