contemporary genocide timeline layer - wordpress.comraphael lemkin, a polish-jewish lawyer sought to...
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Contemporary
Genocide
Timeline
Layer
Our Walls Bear Witness...
Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish lawyer
sought to describe Nazi policies of systematic
murder, including the destruction of European
Jews.
He formed the word genocide by combining
geno-, from the Greek word for race or tribe,
with -cide, from the Latin word for killing.
1944
Raphael Lemkin prepares for a talk on UN radio, probably between 1947 and 1951.
— US Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of United Nations
The International Military Tribunal
held at Nuremberg, Germany,
charged top Nazi officials with “crimes
against humanity.” The word genocide
was included in the indictment, but as a
descriptive, not as a legal term.
1945
The International Military Tribunal trial of war criminals at Nuremberg. #61337 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park (Public Domain)
After World War II:
Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, and Macedonia were
unified to form the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprised
of a number of ethnic groups, including:
● Serbs (Orthodox Christians)
● Croats (Catholics)
● Bosniaks (Muslims)
● Ethnic Albanians (Muslims)
There had long been a history of tensions in the Balkans between
these groups.
Nov. 29, 1945
THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE
The UN approved the Convention on the Prevention & Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide. This established genocide as an international crime, which
signatory nations “undertake to prevent and punish.”
It defines genocide as: Any of the following acts committed with
intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial
or religious group, as such: (“intent to destroy” is unique to genocide)
December 9, 1948
● Killing members of the group
● Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
● Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated
to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
● Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
● Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group
Professor Raphael Lemkin, left, and Ricardo Alfaro of Panama (chairman of the
Assembly's Legal Committee) in conversation before the plenary meeting of the
General Assembly at which the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
Genocide was approved. — UN Archives and Records Management Section
December 9, 1948:The final text for the Crime of Genocide was adopted unanimously by the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide
October 14, 1950:The number of countries that signed the UN Genocide Convention surpassed the 20 necessary for the convention to come into effect.
January 12, 1951:It officially entered into force after more than 20 countries from around the world ratified it.
1948 - 1951
Several delegates from signatory nations:Front, from left: Korea; Haiti; Iran; France; Costa Rica; Rear, from left: Assistant Secretary General for Legal Affairs; Secretary General; representative from Costa Rica; and Raphael Lemkin, the Convention's chief proponent.
Raphael Lemkin, who coined the word "genocide",
tirelessly lobbied the United Nations for genocide to be added
to international law. His efforts to enlist the support
of national delegations and influential leaders eventually
paid off.
On December 9, 1948, the United Nations approved the
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.
Lemkin did not rest with the UN document, but committed
the rest of his life to urging nations to pass legislation
supporting the Convention.
He died in 1959, impoverished and exhausted by his efforts.
Aug. 28, 1959
Yugoslavia’s president, Josip Tito, governed with
an iron hand and because of this suppressed potential
ethnic conflicts.
When he died on May 4, 1980, some Yugoslav
republics and ethnic groups expressed the desire for
independence from the Union and each other.
Yugoslav republics began declaring their independence
in 1990, opening up old historical wounds.
May 4, 1980
Yugoslav partisan leaders Josip Broz Tito. Yugoslavia, between 1941 and 1944. --Jewish Historical Museum, Belgrade
There was growing nationalism among some of the republics’
leaders. One of the most well known in the west was the Serbian
leader Slobodan Milosevic.
He capitalized on these nationalist feelings to engineer changes
that strengthened Serbia's position in the Yugoslav constitution.
He transformed the military so that it became 90 percent
Serbian.
He extended his control over the country's financial, mass
media, and security structures to support Serbian nationalists in
Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia.
He and Serbian separatists in Croatia and Bosnia used their
influence to increase ethnic tensions by convincing Serbian
civilians across the former Yugoslavia that their Croatian,
Bosniak, and Albanian neighbors would threaten their rights.Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic stands trial for war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal, The Hague, 2001. —Courtesy of ICTY
Bosnia - 1980s
US President Ronald Reagan signed the UN
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
Genocide.
The Convention faced strong opponents who feared it
would infringe on US national sovereignty.
One of the Convention's strongest advocates, Senator
William Proxmire from Wisconsin, delivered over
3,000 speeches advocating the Convention in
Congress from 1968–1987.
Nov. 5, 1988
William Proxmire (1915–2005) served in the U.S. Senate for the state of Wisconsin from 1957 to 1989. —Wisconsin Historical Society
The government of Bosnia declared its independence from Yugoslavia. The creation of
an independent Bosnian nation that would have a Bosniak majority was opposed by Bosnian
Serbs, who launched a military campaign to secure coveted territory and “cleanse” Bosnia of
its Muslim civilian population. The Serbs targeted Bosniak and Croatian civilians in areas
under their control, in what has become known as "ethnic cleansing."
April 5, 1992
Srebrenica Massacre Begins
More than 20,000 Bosniak civilians fled to the Dutch
peacekeepers’ base in Potocari as General Ratko Mladic,
commander of the Bosnian Serb forces, walked through the
deserted streets of Srebrenica and declared it a “gift” to the
Serbian people. Fearing what would happen to them if they
stayed behind, upwards of 10,000 Bosnian Muslim men and
boys set out on foot through the forest shortly after midnight,
hoping to make it to the town of Tuzla some 30 miles away.
In Potocari, the Dutch peacekeepers tried to act as a barrier
between the thousands of civilians seeking their protection and
General Mladic’s soldiers, but they did not have enough supplies
nor were they authorized to use force to protect the civilians.
Srebrenica - July 11, 1992
Hours before the massacre, Mladic handed out candy to Muslim children rounded up at the town’s square and assured them that all would be fine — even patting one child on the head. -Associated Press Television News/File 1995
General Mladic told the civilians gathered outside the Dutch base
that buses would take them to Muslim-held territory and that
women, children, and the elderly would leave first. Serbian soldiers
also told the Dutch peacekeepers the military-aged men and boys
needed to be “questioned” in order to weed out Bosnian Muslim
soldiers from civilians, following reports, they said, that Muslim
soldiers had used Srebrenica as a base for attacks against
surrounding Serb villages.
Over the next two days, more than 20,000 women and children were
put on buses and sent to Muslim-held territory, eventually arriving
in Tuzla, where a displaced persons camp had been established.
Srebrenica - July 12, 1992
Muslims expelled from Srebrenica, at the Tuzla displaced persons camp. —Courtesy of UNHCR
Bosnian Serbs rounded up the remaining men and boys and
sent them to nearby Bratunac. Those who had set out on foot
through the forest were also met by Serbs at various
checkpoints along the way, where hundreds were shot and
killed and men farther back in the column were taken in large
numbers.
By the end of the day on July 13, there were almost no males
left in Srebrenica. Evidence suggests Bosnian Serbs held
between 4,000-5,000 males in Bratunac in various locations
around the town—in a warehouse, in an old school, in lines of
trucks and buses, on a football field. The rest were either still on
their way to Tuzla through the forest, or had already been killed
during their journey or after surrendering in Potocari.
Srebrenica- July 13, 1992
Bosnian Serbs began their systematic execution of
the men held in Bratunac, burying the dead in mass graves
near the killing sites. Over the next few months they
would attempt to cover up their crimes by reburying
the remains in 33 different secondary sites.
For the survivors in Bosnia, one of the most difficult aspects
of the aftermath has been the uncertainty of not knowing
what happened to loved ones.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) estimates Bosnian Serbs killed between
7,000 and 8,000 men and boys during the week after the fall
of Srebrenica, making it the largest massacre in Europe
since the Holocaust.
Srebrenica- July 14, 1992
On the anniversary of Srebrenica's fall, a woman grieves at the spot where women were separated from men. Potocari near Srebrenica, Republika Srpska. July 11 2002. Tarik Samarah
Eyewitness Testimony:
Hasan Nuhanović
In 1992, Hasan Nuhanović and his
family fled the violence in their
hometown of Vlasenica but got only as
far as Srebrenica.
Srebrenica - July 1992
http://bit.ly/ushmmvideo1
Eyewitness Testimony:
Christiane Amanpour
Throughout the 1992-95 war in Bosnia,
Christiane Amanpour reported on the
suffering of Bosnian civilians.
Srebrenica - July 1992
http://bit.ly/ushmmvideo2
Time publishes an iconic photo of a concentration
camp for Muslims on its magazine cover.
Echoes of the Holocaust are intentionally captured by
the photographer and the magazine to raise awareness
in the US about the atrocities in Europe and to prompt
questions about the role of governmental intervention
for humanitarian reasons.
August 17, 1992
Even when it became clear that the
attacks in Srebrenica were being
planned, the international community
did not offer the UN peacekeepers
stationed there additional support or
assistance.
Providing humanitarian aid, instead of
confronting atrocities against civilians,
was the central focus of the international
response to the conflict in Bosnia.
1992 - 1996
Sarajevo - Courtesy of BBC
The conflict included an intensive
bombing campaign of Bosnia’s capital in
“the Siege of Sarajevo”— in which
snipers in hills around the city shot at
civilians as they tried to get food and
water—as well as roundups and mass
executions, confinement in concentration
camps, torture, and systematic rape.
February 29, 1996 was the official end
of the siege as declared by the Bosnian
government.
April 5, 1992 - Feb. 29, 1996
On her way home in afternoon on Thursday, April 8, 1993 in Sarajevo, a
Bosnian woman rushes down an empty sidewalk past war-destroyed shops
in one of the worst sections of the so-called "Sniper Alley." --The Atlantic
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum opened
Dedication ceremonies for the Museum included speeches by:
● US President Bill Clinton
● Chaim Herzog, president of Israel
● Harvey Meyerhoff, chairman of the US Holocaust Memorial
Council
● Elie Wiesel, who had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1986
On April 26, the Museum officially opened to the public—with its
first visitor being His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet.
April 22, 1993
JUSTICE
While the conflict in Bosnia continued—and a full
year before the genocide at Srebrenica—the UN
Security Council created the International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) to prosecute the perpetrators of the
atrocities.
It was the first such tribunal since Nuremberg
and the first mandated to prosecute the crime
of genocide, among other offenses.
May 25, 1993
Building housing the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia, The Hague. --Courtesy of the ICTY
The conflict in Rwanda, which will later be
declared genocide, started when a plane carrying
Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was
shot down.
Under the cover of war, Hutu extremists launched their
plans to destroy the entire Tutsi civilian population. Hutu
extremists distributed propaganda suggesting that all
Tutsi civilians were a part of the military threat posed by
the Rwandan Patriotic Front. They secretly drew up lists
of Tutsi and moderate Hutu leaders to assassinate, armed
and trained youth militias, and began small-scale
massacres. As genocide continued in Rwanda, the United
Nations cut the peacekeeping force to just 270 soldiers.
April 6, 1994
In 1994, Jean-Philippe Ceppi was an independent journalist based inKenya. When he heard that the Rwandan president's airplane crashed onApril 6, he immediately made his way to Rwanda. - USHMM
EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY: JEAN-PHILIPPE CEPPI
http://bit.ly/ushmmvideo3
In 100 days, from April to July 1994,
between 500,000 and one million
Rwandans, predominantly Tutsis, were
massacred when a Hutu extremist–led
government launched a plan to wipe out the
country’s entire Tutsi minority and any others
who opposed its policies.
April - July, 1994
During the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, ID cards were
death warrants for many Tutsis.
—US Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of Jerry Fowler
Norah Bagarinka - RwandaNorah Bagarinka, a Tutsi, was targeted during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. She survived, as many Tutsi did, by running and hiding for more than 100 days.
At one point during her ordeal, she was stopped at a roadblock where militiamen—including a man she recognized as her former gardener—separated the civilians.
Her gardener announced that he would kill her, then forced Bagarinka and several other women behind some trees. Once out of view of the roadblock, he explained that this was the only way he could spare their lives. "Run!" he told them.
Bagarinka managed to stay hidden until the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a Tutsi-led rebel group, defeated the perpetrators of the genocide.
In 2005, she moved to the United States, where she counsels victims of domestic abuse.
Rwanda: April - July, 1994
http://bit.ly/ushmmvideo4
EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY: NORAH BAGARINKA
—USHMM
Carl Wilkens - RwandaIn 1994, Carl Wilkens directed the Adventist Development and Relief Agency International in Rwanda. His family evacuated when the genocide began, but Wilkens chose to stay to deliver aid to children in need despite the ongoing violence.
He came into contact with Damas Gisimba, who directed an orphanage and was secretly providing safe haven for 400 people threatened by the genocide.
When militias prepared to attack the orphanage, Wilkens managed to get assurances from Rwandan Prime Minister Jean Kambanda that the militias would be called off and the people at the orphanage would be evacuated to a safer location.
After the genocide, Wilkens and his family continued their aid projects in Rwanda. They later returned to the United States, where Wilkens became an Adventist pastor. He continues to speak about his experiences in 1994 and the need to respond to genocide today.
Rwanda: April - July, 1994
EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY: CARL WILKENS —USHMM
http://bit.ly/ushmmvideo5
● The Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic
Front (RPF) captures Kigali and
announces that the war is over
● The Hutu government fled to Zaire
● The French ended their mission and
were replaced by Ethiopian UN troops
● The RFP set up an interim government
of national unity in Kigali
● Meanwhile, the killing of Tutsis
continued in refugee camps.
July 18, 1994
Some 90,000 Rwandan Tutsi refugees wait to get food from the Red Cross, in May 1994, at a refugee camp in Tanzania - BBC
The United Nations established the
International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania.
Nov. 8, 1994
Offices of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania. — Public Domain
SREBRENICA
Bosnian Serb forces killed as
many as 8,000 Bosniak men and
boys from the town of Srebrenica.
It was the largest massacre in
Europe since the Holocaust
and later determined a crime of
genocide.
July, 1995
One of many boards filled with photographs of missing people. Association of Srebrenica's Mothers in Tuzla. September 2002. Tarik Samarah www.ushmm.org
Only after Bosnian Serb forces overran the UN safe haven
at Zepa and dropped a bomb in a crowded Sarajevo
market did the international community respond
forcefully.
In August 1995, NATO launched three weeks of
bombing on Bosnian Serb positions in conjunction
with a Bosnian government and Croatian ground
offensive that helped push the Serbs back to negotiations.
August 1995
A US F14 tomcat fighter takes off on a patrol over Bosnia from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt.
Smoke rises from an ammunition depot in Bosnian Serb stronghold of Pale, some 10 miles east of Sarajevo, on August 30, 1995 after NATO air strikes.
Negotiations took place at the Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
The agreement, known as the Dayton Accords,
established two state "entities," the Serb Republic and
the Bosnian Federation, joined by a weak central
government.
Srebrenica, where approximately 8,000 Bosnian
Muslim men and boys were massacred just a few
months earlier, is in the Serb Republic.
Nov. 21, 1995
The war in Bosnia-Herzegovina ended
with a peace agreement signed in Paris,
France 3-weeks after it was negotiated at the
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton,
Ohio, known as the Dayton Accords.
By the end of the fighting:
● More than 100,000 civilians had been killed
● More than 20,000 were missing; believed dead
● Two million had become refugees
December 14, 1995
Signatories of the Dayton Agreement in Paris, December 14,1995Front row from left: Slobodan Milosevic (Serbia), Franjo Tudjman (Croatia), and Alija Izetbegovic (B-H)
In the back row stand, from left, Felipe Gonzalez (Spain), Bill Clinton (USA),Jacques Chirac (France), Helmut Kohl (Germany), John Major (UK) and Viktor Chernomyrdin (Russia)
The Rome Statute establishes the International
Criminal Court (ICC), the first permanent
judicial body set up to try genocide and war crimes
in The Hague.
The Rome Statute is so named because it was
adopted in Rome, Italy, on July 17, 1998 by the
United Nations Diplomatic Conference of
Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an
International Criminal Court.
July 17, 1998
The United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on theEstablishment of an International Criminal Court opened a five weeksession on June 15, 1998, in Rome, Italy. —UN Photo/Evan Schneider
The ICTR delivered the first-ever
conviction for genocide when it
judged Jean-Paul Akayesu guilty of
inciting and leading acts of violence
against Tutsi civilians (in Rwanda) in
the town where he served as mayor.
Oct. 2, 1998
United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals website
RWANDAN MEDIA TRIAL BEGINS
The issue of free speech rights was at the heart of the Rwanda “Media
Trial,” responsible for prosecuting members of media involved in the 1994
genocide. In 1997, the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
indicted 3 Rwandans for “incitement to genocide”: Hassan Ngeze, who
founded, published, and edited Kangura(Wake Others Up!), a Hutu-owned
tabloid that in the months preceding the genocide published vitriolic articles
dehumanizing the Tutsi as cockroaches, though never called directly for
killing them; and Ferdinand Nahimana and Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza,
founders of Radio Télévision Libre des Milles Collines, a radio station that
indirectly and directly called for murder, even at times to the point of
providing the names and locations of those to be killed.
In December 2003, the ICTR handed down its verdict, convicting Ngeze and
Nahimana of direct and public incitement to genocide, and Barayagwiza of
instigating the perpetration of acts of genocide and crimes against humanity.
Oct. 23, 2000EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY: STEPHEN RAPP
Stephen Rapp, a victim of a violent crime as a young man, became a
prosecutor, first for the US Attorney's Office, and from 2001 to2006 at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).Rapp led a landmark case against three Rwandan journalists.- USHMM
http://bit.ly/ushmmvideo6
Dragan Obrenović was chief of staff and deputy commander
of the 1st Zvornik Infantry Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army
from Dec. 1992 through Nov. 1996.
After Srebrenica fell to Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995,
Obrenović helped implement the plan to kill Bosniak
civilians and prisoners of war.
Indicted for his role in the massacres, in 2003 Obrenović
pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity before the
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
(ICTY).
He is serving a 17-year sentence in a Norwegian prison. He
was to be eligible for release in April, 2018, but was released
by orders from the ICTY for good behavior in 2012.Dragan Obrenović, Perpetrator, Bosnia-Herzegovina
2003
http://bit.ly/ushmmvideo7
Today, in the village of Potocari, the Srebrenica -
Potocari Memorial and Cemetery for the
Victims of the 1995 Genocide serves as a symbolic
place marker in the town where so many saw their loved
ones for the last time. Since its opening as a cemetery in
March 2003, and the opening of its memorial room in
July 2007, more than 6,000 remains have been reburied
there after being exhumed from mass graves.
Every year, on July 11, thousands gather there to
remember the innocent lives that were lost in Srebrenica
and to challenge the world, through their insistent
presence, to work to prevent genocide in the future.
March, 2003
A woman prays near the Memorial plaque with names of those killed in the Srebrenica massacre before watching the Hague Tribunal, in Potocari near Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina March 24, 2016. -Reuters
JUSTICE? The most high profile prosecutions in Bosnia include:
Slobodan Milosevic:The former Serbian military leader was transferred to the ICTY in 2001.
He died during his trial in 2006.
Radovan Karadzic: The former Supreme Commander of the Bosnian Serb Army was extradited to The Hague 13 years
after his indictment on genocide charges for allegedly organizing the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica.
He was arrested on a public bus in 2008, more than 10 years after effectively vanishing.
He had taken a new identity, posing as a faith healer and using the alias Dr. Dragan Dabic.
His trial lasted 5 years. On March 24, 2016, he was found guilty of 10 out of the 11 charges against
him, including genocide at Srebrenica. He was sentenced to 40-years in prison.
Ratko Mladic:Known as the “Butcher of Bosnia”, he was accused of ordering the Srebrenica genocide.
He had been on the run for 16 years when he was arrested in May, 2011.
International Criminal Court’s First
Investigation
Luis Moreno Ocampo, Prosecutor for the
International Criminal Court (ICC),
announces that the Court's first-ever investigation
will probe crimes committed throughout the
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The investigation was triggered by a request from
the Congolese transitional government. Several
rebel commanders were arrested, including
Thomas Lubanga, a rebel commander operating
in eastern Congo, and later, former vice-president
and presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba.
June 23, 2004
Luis Moreno Ocampo
Sept. 9, 2004
The burning of Um Ziefa in Darfur, Sudan, on December 12, 2004. —USHMM gift of Brian Steidle
Secretary of State Colin Powell speaks at UN Headquarters. —UN Photo
US Declares Genocide in Darfur
For the first time in US government history, an ongoing
crisis is referred to as “genocide” when Secretary of State
Colin Powell argued that events in Darfur could be
labeled as such. In his testimony before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, Powell said, “We
concluded—I concluded—that genocide has been
committed in Darfur and that the Government of Sudan
and the Janjaweed bear responsibility—and that
genocide may still be occurring.”
First Person Arrested Under ICC
Warrant
Thomas Lubanga, a rebel commander operating
in eastern Congo, became the first person to be
arrested under an ICC arrest warrant. He was
charged with war crimes for recruiting child
soldiers during the Second Congo War.
Two rebels who fought against Lubanga's militia,
Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui,
were also arrested on charges of war crimes and
crimes against humanity.
March 17, 2006
Thomas Lubanga, on trial - International Criminal Court website
DRC Holds First Elections in 40 Years
In 2006, DRC held its first multi-party general elections
in over 40 years, and over 25 million citizens
participated. The elections signified the end of a three-
year transition period during which time the country
moved from intense war to a system of power sharing
between the former government, former armed forces,
opposition parties, and civil society. However, national
and provincial structures remain incapable of ensuring
basic security for communities, providing transparent
management of resources and wealth, and addressing
entrenched problems of corruption, poverty, lack of
development, and heightened ethnic and regional
tensions.
July 30, 2006
Election officers count votes late into the night after the secondround of presidential and provincial elections in Bunia, Ituri,Democratic Republic of the Congo. —UN Photo
ICC Issues First Arrest Warrant for
Head of State
The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced
its decision to issue an arrest warrant charging
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with five counts
of crimes against humanity and two counts of war
crimes for his leadership role in orchestrating the
conflict in Darfur. This decision marks the first time
the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for a sitting head
of state. While the charges against Mr. Bashir include
murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture, and
rape, among others, notably absent from the warrant
is the charge of genocide.
March 4, 2009
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir
Memorializing those killed in Sarajevo
During the siege of Sarajevo 1992-95 the city was repeatedly
bombarded by enemy forces. It’s estimated that an average of
over 300 shells hit the city every day with a devastating
crescendo of 3,777 shells hitting the city on July 22, 1993. By
then all buildings in the city had suffered some type of
damage and over 35,000 had been completely destroyed.
Many of the explosive craters left behind by the shelling were
filled with red resin to mark the casualties suffered at the
spot. The explosion patterns remind some of a flower leading
to the memorials being named “Sarajevo Roses.” However
many also resemble giant bullet wounds lest anyone forget
their violent origins.
There were originally nearly 100 roses painted in the city, but
as the city rebuilds many have been covered up or destroyed.
The ministry is currently working on the restoration of the 12
remaining roses & should be done by the end of 2015. They
will be nominated to UNESCO's World Heritage List as well.
April, 2009
“We are gathered here today in order to mark out the Sarajevo Rose – at the place where a crime was committed – as a way of keeping alive the memory of what happened. The most important thing is that it is young people from all across the region who are doing this together.” – Mario Mančić, Youth Initiative for Human Rights – Croatia
April is Genocide Awareness Month
around the globe.
South Sudan Declares
Independence
The Republic of South Sudan declared its
independence from Sudan. In 2005, the
north and south signed the Comprehensive
Peace Agreement, ending the Second
Sudanese Civil War. After an interim period,
the south was guaranteed the right to vote in
a referendum on independence. This vote
was carried out on January 9, 2011, resulting
in a resounding endorsement for separation.
July 9, 2011
Schoolchildren wait in anticipation for the arrival of the US Ambassador to theUnited Nations and members of the UN Security Council, who have traveled toSouth Sudan to underscore their support for the January referendum on the region’sindependence. October 9, 2010 —Lucian Perkins, US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Bosnia's Serb Republic leader banned any
teaching about the siege of Sarajevo and
genocide in Srebrenica, denying for the first time
that Bosnian Serb forces besieged and attacked
people in the capital for years during the 1990s war.
Bosnian Serb leaders have always denied that the
1995 massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim Bosniaks
in Srebrenica was genocide although two
international war crimes courts have stated the
atrocity constituted genocide.
June 6, 2017
Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik at a ceremony in Stanari near Doboj, Bosnia and Herzegovina, September 20, 2016. REUTERS
The Netherlands was held partly responsible by the
Appeals Court of the ICC on for the deaths of about
300 men in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. The court
ruled that Dutch peacekeepers acted partly illegally
when they allowed Bosnian Serbs to seize Muslim
men who were seeking shelter in a UN safe haven.
This ruling is from a series of ongoing trials. In 2014
a Dutch court found the Dutch Army should have
protected 300 Muslim men who were hiding inside
the UN enclave.
Damages due from the Dutch government to the
3,000 strong “Mothers of Srebrenica” group and
families of the victims are still being calculated.
June 27, 2017
Genocide and mass atrocities are rare yet devastating
crimes. They are also preventable. Studies of past
atrocities show that we can detect early warning signs
and that if policy makers act on those warnings and
develop preventive strategies, we can save lives.
The Early Warning Project uses a wide range of data
to identify countries at risk of new mass atrocities.
The statistical component of our model focuses solely
on cases of state-led violence, meaning a government
acting against its own people. The country rankings
are not designed to pinpoint threats from one
country against another.
The goal of this project is to advance prevention
which has been a global challenge since 1945.
Early Warning Project
sen
Using the Early Warning Project website:
● Select a country
● Investigate its’ risk assessment
● Create your own slide to place on the
Timeline
Early Warning Project