Derry community leaders to explore diversity and peace building in Bosnia

Community leaders from the Derry and Strabane Council area are set to explore how diversity and power-sharing have been managed in Bosnia-Herzegovina when they travel there later this year.
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The programme is being organised by Council’s Good Relations team with support from the Executive Office and aims to learn more about the genocide at Srebrenica.

Working with Remembering Srebrenica, a charity based in Birmingham, 18 community leaders will explore how Bosnia has built the peace between its three main ethnic and political entities following the power-sharing peace agreement that was concluded at Dayton in 1995.

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They will also meet with victims and survivors and hear from civil and political leaders in Bosnia about future relationships between the three political and ethnic entities in the country.

View of Don't Forget sign and old bridge on August 10, 2012 in Mostar, Bosnia.View of Don't Forget sign and old bridge on August 10, 2012 in Mostar, Bosnia.
View of Don't Forget sign and old bridge on August 10, 2012 in Mostar, Bosnia.

It follows a motion from Council unanimously supported to acknowledge the genocide at Srebrenica, a visit from a survivor of the genocide and the special screening during Good Relations week of award-winning movie ‘Quo Vadis, Aida?’.

Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Councillor Sandra Duffy, said: “In our own City and District we have first hand experience of the impact of inter community strife.

“It is useful and important that we learn from the stories and experiences of other parts of the world who have experienced conflict driven by ethnic and political differences.

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“I hope our community leaders learn from what will be a sobering but insightful experience in Bosnia and that the lessons they learn can be brought back and applied in our own region.”

Peter Osborne, Chair of Remembering Srebrenica in Northern Ireland said: “The message is clear – relationships dismantles prejudice and a lesson from what happened at Srebrenica is that we always need to challenge racism and sectarianism at an early stage.

“We have a duty in our own lives, in our own way and in our own area, to ensure that any violence driven by ignorance and prejudice, whether as significant as the Srebrenica genocide or not, will never happen again.

“We are indebted to everyone who will be taking part in the visit and to Derry City and Strabane District Council and The Executive Office for supporting it.”

The community leaders will engage in pre-visit workshops before a visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina in March 2023.