Srebrenica mother tells Derry pupils of losing her family in genocide

Together they heard the story of genocide survivor and keynote speaker Munira Subašić who spoke of losing her husband, 17 years old son and 20 members of her family in the Srebrenica genocide of July 1995.

The Holocaust Week event is held annually at the college to remember the victims of genocide.

On January 27 each year, the UN urges all member states to honour the millions of victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of war throughout the world and to develop educational programmes to help prevent future genocides.

The Srebrenica massacre, also known as the Srebrenica genocide, was the July 1995 genocidal killing of more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys in and around the town of Srebenica during the Bosnia War.

It was mainly perpetrated by units of the Bosnian Serb Army of Republika Srpska under Ratko Mladić though the Serb paramilitary unit Scorpions also participated. The massacre was the first legally recognised genocide in Europe since WWII.

At the Special Assembly, Mrs. Subašić, president of the Mothers of Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves, one of the main organisations representing victims of the Srebrenica genocide, spoke to a packed hall.

One observer said: “You could have heard a pin drop as she conveyed her daunting story through her interpreter.”

Taking her position at the school’s podium, Mrs. Subašić said: “I am very humbled to be invited and to speak to so many young people about what happened at Srebrenica but also to be an advocate for reconciliation.

"We know in Bosnia about political and ethnic divisions and that further prejudice, hatred and separation are not answers. They just lead to more misery. We don’t want to visit the problems of the past on our next generations and neither should Northern Ireland.”

Peter Osborne, chair of the Northern Ireland Board of charity Remembering Srebrenica, said: "The event at Oakgrove was outstanding and we want to thank all the pupils and schools that participated, and the teachers for their support and commitment. Young people are our future, and if these students are anything to go by, we should be very optimistic about that future, together.”

Staff and students from Thornhill and Foyle Colleges, their teachers, together with the Principal of Lisneal College, joined the annual event.

Oakgrove Principal, John Harkin said he was honoured to host Munira and hoped that all those in attendance learned something from hearing her telling her story.

He asked the audience, in their lives, to honour the memory of all who died in genocide by making choices each day to build up humanity and respect.

Quoting Eleanor Roosevelt’s words on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights he asked, ‘Where, after all, do human rights begin, in the little places close to home, so small and insignificant that they do not appear on any map of the world. If human rights have no meaning there, then they have no meaning anywhere’.

Mr. Harkin concluded: “We mark this day because we should honour those lives destroyed, recommit to holding the world to its promise ‘Never Again’ and make sure that in our life choices we humanise, not categorise those around us.”