In remembrance of the 24th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, our wonderful Golders Green Group hosted a talk, in collaboration with Remembering Srebrenica UK. They invited Safet Vukalic, a Bosnian Muslim and survivor of the ethnic cleansing in Prijedor, to share his personal experience and his memories of the war.
Safet introduced us to the Yugoslavia of the 90s, to the strategic and meticulous campaign of forced deportation and violence which saw its peak in July 1995, when around the city of Srebrenica 8372 people, mostly men and boys, were brutally killed. His memories of those years were vivid and hard to listen to, especially when he spoke of his life before the war, describing a time when they all lived peacefully together, not really paying attention to religious differences.
The talk was followed by a Q&A session, and it ended with the ritual group picture, a must in any Nisa-Nashim occasion.
No society is invulnerable to prejudice and intolerance, and an event like the one of yesterday reminded all of us how relevant it is to continue working as #activeallies, together.