The Residenzplatz in the center of Salzburg is a popular place for events. Every year, tourists and locals meet here at the Christmas market or the Rupertikirtag. Both are celebrations of joy. Today, the Residenzplatz is again the scene of an event, like every year on July 11th. There is no joyful festival celebrated today. It’s quiet today. It is quiet except for the speech in three languages played through the loudspeakers and the Bosnian funeral music that can be heard in the background. The Residenzplatz is once again the setting for the commemoration of the Genocide in SrebrenicaBosnia and Herzegovina.
28 years ago today, 8,732 innocent people were torn from their families in the small Bosnian town, killed and their bodies buried. Every year on the anniversary newly found remains are buried in the cemetery complex in Srebrenica. Until then, they lie in mass graves, where they have been disposed of and hidden by Bosnian Serb soldiers.
On site at Residenzplatz
As a person with a Bosnian migration background and a member of the first post-war generation, it was very important to me to write about the Srebrenica commemoration in Salzburg. I’ve been to the commemoration at Residenzplatz before, but for personal reasons. Today I am here on business. I don’t think a professional appointment has ever been so difficult for me. A mixture of nervousness and excitement is spreading through me. Arriving at Residenzplatz, the organizers and construction workers of the commemoration greet me. I would like to take this opportunity to tell an important story – the story of a city’s suffering and a nation’s pain – through pictures, videos and my reporting. For this reason, I spoke to the organizers of the memorial service. These are exclusively Bosnian clubs from Salzburg.
“Srebrenica is the deepest wound in the body of the tortured Bosniak and Bosnian people,” reads a passage of the speech by Hamed Husejnovic, the main organizer (BH Dijaspora Salzburg). I couldn’t put it better. Like me, Husejnovic comes from a village near Srebrenica.
Srebrenica on July 11, 1995
After the Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic took the city of Srebrenica in the east of the country in 1995 during the Bosnian war, he and his soldiers began to systematically kill Muslim Bosnians – also known as Bosniaks. Men and boys were separated from their families, abducted, tortured and killed. Thousands of women lost their husbands, sons, brothers and fathers that day. According to the APA report, the 300 blue helmets stationed by the UN in Srebrenica offered no resistance when Serbian units attacked Srebrenica in July 1995. For the first time at the celebrations last year, the Dutch defense minister apologized for sharing responsibility for the genocide.
A total of 8,753 men and boys are believed to have been killed, although not all the remains have been found to this day. Only 6,721 victims could be buried. Also this year, on the anniversary of the massacre, coffins will be wrapped in green cloth and buried in a decent grave in Srebrenica. Often, surviving mothers say goodbye to the remains of their sons before they begin their final journey.
Srebrenica on July 11, 2023
Today 30 more souls are finding peace, explains Husejnovic. Yesterday, a convoy from the state capital Sarajevo started with the identified remains – including four underage boys. The youngest was 15 at the time of death and is buried next to his father and brother, who were buried years earlier at the Srebrenica Memorial Cemetery. The burials will take place shortly after noon at the memorial cemetery in Srebrenica. While Bosnians and the country mourn, other ethnic groups still deny the genocide. Although denial of the genocide in Bosnia is punishable according to the APA report, Serbian nationalist groups do not recognize the genocide. There are said to have been hundreds of accomplices in the massacre, but only a handful were caught and convicted in The Hague. Among them Ratko Mladic.
Salzburg against forgetting
Because many people with a Bosnian migration background live in Salzburg, several Bosnian organizations have formed in the city of Mozart. Representation is particularly important for the minority, especially in light of the horrific war crimes. Husejnovic knows that too: “We want the post-war generation, most of whom were born and grew up here, to grow from this memory,” he explains. With so many Bosnians living in Salzburg, take the opportunity to shed light on the genocide in the heart of the city and let the world know what happened in Srebrenica.
City Councilor Andrea Brandner (SPÖ) also emphasizes the importance of remembering in Salzburg. She sees the massacre as a warning example for younger generations: “This memory must be maintained so that one can learn from it.” For Tarik Mete (SPÖ), the event goes beyond representation: “For me, this commemoration event is a mandatory event. The point is that everyone in our city sees what happened in the middle of Europe not so long ago.” The topic should also become more present in schools. Because although the atrocities of July 11, 1995 took place in the heart of Europe and are considered the greatest genocide since the Second World War, these terrible events were quickly forgotten outside of the Balkans.
A young tourist also stops at the event. She is Brazilian and explains to me that she can remember hearing about the genocide through the news as a child: “I was maybe eight years old when my father saw the terrible events on the news.”
Two worlds flow together
Bosnian media published reports from Srebrenica on site yesterday. After the coffins arrived and were carried to the cemetery, the families said goodbye to their loved ones – after 28 long years. With these images in mind, I went to Residenzplatz today, where numerous pictures of grieving mothers and excavated mass graves are also on display. Some passers-by laid flowers in front of the pictures. All Bosnians who passed by understood each other silently. Not many words need to be exchanged in mourning. “Bosnia – my mother, Srebrenica – my sister.” That’s the text of the mourning song playing in the background, translated into German.
It was a unique experience for me to see my minority group represented in the middle of the Residenzplatz in the city of Salzburg. Two worlds flow together with this event: the Austrian community in which I grew up and the Bosnian one that I always carry with me. I am happy that I was able to do my part to honor the thousands of victims of this terrible massacre from here.
(Source: SALZBURG24)
2023-07-11 19:49:01
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