Srebrenica massacre

[valiha]

Today marks the 13th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, the first case of genocide in Europe since World War II.

The Americans honor those who were killed on 9/11/2001. My country honors the deaths of those whose lives were brutally taken on 7/11/1995.

It is estimated that over 8000 men and boys were slaughtered in the massacre while trying to escape the supposedly safe haven protected by UN Dutch forces. They spent three days on foot, trying to cross the mountains and find safety in the town of Tuzla. Most of them never made it. They were hunted down like animals, and the men, boys and the elderly were separated from the women, loaded up on buses, and executed. 

Every year, the families of the victims recreate the March of Death.  This year, another 308 victims were buried, aged 15 to 84 years old. 

The Srebrenica Genocide Blog has a more complete article about the massacre and this year's anniversary.

It makes me so damn angry to see more massacres in this world committed even after the world leaders cried over the pictures of mutilated bodies, and swore "Never again!" I don't even know how many times.  It turned out that "Never again!" doesn't carry any weight in poor places of the world, like Rwanda and Darfur. 

I really hope to God that something like this does not happen ever again.

Comments

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

It's hard to know what to say in the face of great tragedy, especially from my small and quiet corner of the world... my thoughts will be with them all today.

[dj-aida.livejournal.com]

Each and every TV station has been covering the anniversary these past three days. It got so bad that I couldn't bear to watch it any more. I'm shaking with rage, sadness and nausea. I spent the entire war in Mostar, under atrocious conditions. If something like this happened again...

Well, you know how wolves chew off their own paws rather than be captured? That's what I'd do. I couldn't bear it again, and I'd do whatever was necessary to get out. Even if I had to dig my way to China with my own bare hands.

[nesmith.livejournal.com]

I think most of the world--and America in particular--cannot mentally grasp the idea of war and privation and suffering and death. It's been almost 150 years since there was a war on our soil that took thousands upon thousands of lives and devastated whole regions; since then our wars have been fought comfortably far away from us--Europe, Asia, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq--so the realities of war don't touch us. And Americans are in general a sluggish people with very short attention spans, so it's very difficult to get us to care.

[dj-aida.livejournal.com]

Yes, unfortunately most people have to be personally affected before they decide to do something about it. Too bad the ones in power are never affected; they're too far removed from any reality. Having an entire continent to themselves seems to have made Americans feel like they're separate from what goes on in the world, ignoring the fact that we're all connected. Everything has consequences. Even those far away wars have an effect on America, either in veterans who came home with physical and mental consequences, or the hatred of countries that perceive America as a big bully who wants to run the world their way - when they want anything to do with it.

[nesmith.livejournal.com]

It's interesting how that perception comes about because it's not any wonder, the way we behave abroad--most of the "peon" Americans like me are hardworking, easygoing folks; we like to enjoy our lives and families just like anyone else. Unfortunately it's the hateful, wasteful, useless sacks of crap who make the most noise and have the most power.

And we do have an insular, invulnerable feeling. In 1837 Abraham Lincoln wrote “Whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some transatlantic giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River, or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we will live forever, or die by suicide.”

I think one day all our meddling in others' affairs is going to bite us and bite us HARD, and frankly I'm of the mind that that's not a bad thing. America could use a little tough love and some big doses of humility.

[dj-aida.livejournal.com]

That insular feeling may have had a base in reality at that time, but not now. Lincoln never experienced airplanes capable of circumventing the world in a few hours, or intercontinental missiles capable of destroying entire cities.

American leaders constantly say that they don't want America to play the part of the world policeman, but then they keep trying to force their own vision of what democracy is supposed to be. So that makes those who are on the receiving end of this kind of diplomacy resent its involvement in what they view as meddling in internal matters. They lash out, leaving victims in their wake.

At the same time, America, as the only super power left in the world, is often called on to play that part. The UN is inefficient, which was clearly proven in various war-torn places of this world, including my own. Its inability to reach a decision and then implement it, and the practice of threatening to take action but never delivering have rendered it helpless in the eyes of the aggressors.

There needs to be a balance between these two. Achieving it is going to be very difficult.

The entire world needs an eye-opening event, something that will make everybody sit down and come to an agreement on how to repair this mess we made ourselves. I don't see it happening any time soon.