What the Serbs wanted to Exit – & Srebrenica

One of the family is in Novi Sad at the mo, at the Exit Festival – I’ve been listening to the livestream.

At the same time there’s been a steady trickle of tweets reminding me of the commemoration later today of the Srebrenica genocide.  A friend from the East London Mosque is leading a delegation and will be taking part.

I’m told 613 men & boys whose bodies have been identified over the past year will be buried at Potocari later today.  Over 8,000 unarmed Bosniacs were taken up to the hills around Srebrenica (a UN designated safe area for Muslims) in July 1995 and shot by Serbian forces.  General Ratko Mladić, who was in command, is now on trial for genocide.  Bodies are still being recovered and identified.

Huge crowd at the Exit Festival 2011.

The Exit Festival was started in 2000 (100 days of it!) by three Serbian students under the slogan, “Exit out of ten years of madness”, a reference to the Milošević regime.  Milošević resigned later that year and spent his last years on trial for war crimes.  It’s great that the festival (now just 4 days) has become one of the best festivals-with-a-message in Europe.

Here are some more photos from my 2009 visit.

A man who survived the killings (second from right) tells our group what happened during the hot summer of 1995.

Myself, a Srebrenica mother who lost all her male family members in the massacre and a friend from our group at Potocari, where the dead are buried.

A couple of young campaigners, one wearing an Exit t-shirt (which I didn't recognise at the time).

Never again - the Srebrenica prayer inscribed in English at the Potocari cemetery.

The beautiful scenery in Bosnia-Hertzegovina - often similar to my own country, Scotland. Much of the countryside cannot be used - it's too expensive to clear all the land-mines.

An afternoon in Harrow

Not a great turnout for SIOE in Harrow

Brrrr – cold in Harrow this afternoon.  I spotted the new mosque (scaffolding still around the minaret) at about the same time as I noticed huge numbers of police in hi-visibility jackets, others on horseback and about 30 police vans surrounding the bleak carpark on the opposite side of the road.

It was harder to spot the demonstrators.  I counted about 13 of them, just enough to hold up a long banner STOP ISLAMISATION OF EUROPE.  They were surrounded by police and one man seemed to be speaking to them via a megaphone.

Happily I bumped into a few friends from Three Faiths Forum and the London Jewish Forum amongst the 200+ counter-demonstrators.  I heard Harrow Central Mosque say that SIOE had been invited to the Mosque to discuss their concerns, but that they had declined.  Canon Giles Fraser (Church of England) had earlier joined people from other faith traditions, the British Humanist Association and local political leaders to emphasise the importance of protecting freedom of worship.

Harrow Central Mosque

SOIE had encouraged Belgians, Serbs, Papua New Guineans and others to display their flags.  I saw none of these (SIOE was banned from demonstrating in Brussels on the 9/11 anniversary this year).

Demonstrators were also urged to refrain from ‘racist chants’ and ‘nazi salutes’ – ‘remarks such as “deport all Muslims” will NOT be permitted’.  These guidelines rather give the game away as to what SIOE is all about.  They appear to be trying to form a Europe-wide network.

Just as well that those who value freedom of expression and worship and who promote an equitable way of living in Europe are also pretty good at networking.

How we live well together, in spite of our differences, is bound to be the topic of a public conversation for some time.  We need to find ways of approaching it in ways that reduce anxiety and enrich our understanding.