In July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces murdered 8,372 men and boys in the Srebrenica region. (‘Die Welt Hat Einfach Zugeschaut – Das Erzählen 3 Überlebende Des Massakers von Srebrenica’) During this genocide, some women and children were able to flee to Western Europe but were deprived of their human rights. The trauma of deprivation of their painful loss of human rights was the result. This excruciating suppression of human suffering not only reflected the flight from the war zone, but also resulted in a mental illness that ended in social dysfunction in the Bosnian country.
To this day, Muslims are accepted but not really integrated, even though the Dayton Accords forced a nationwide acceptance of the "Bosniak".(‘ARTE Journal - Komplette Sendung’) In order to survive, an important part of Bosnian Muslim culture was integrated into everyday life in a foreign country. Even so, many people fear returning to their hometown in Bosnia. It is clear to them that they will not be part of Bosnian society. This shows the state of collective trauma of an unforgotten strong psychological influence due to the deterioration of their human rights. For this reason, the genocide in the Srebrenica region shows that suffering and denial have never ceased and that the entire Balkans is grappling with a past that the political elites have not clarified but instrumentalized.(‘Die Welt Hat Einfach Zugeschaut – Das Erzählen 3 Überlebende Des Massakers von Srebrenica’)
Larissa Jessica Friedrich
Original image:
Euler, M. Photograph of refugees evacuated from the besieged Muslim enclave of Srebrenica, struggling for bread on their arrival in Tuzla, Bosnia, 1993. Ap News, 10 Jul. 2020, www.apnews.com/article/ec01765d17e8c27ead9c3f3ea6e6ca36/gallery/7bebc041a9af4061960318b45a22aa24. Accessed 15 Dec. 2020.