Some years ago I had the extraordinary privilege of acting in Danis Tanovič’s Oscar-winning film No Man’s Land, which encapsulated the whole horror of the Bosnian war in the dilemma of a solider stranded on a land mine. The film deeply moved and challenged millions of people to whom Bosnia was merely an exotic and distant name.
Srebrenica is another one. But the reality of the genocide, in a land I know well and love – the former Yugoslavia – is a thing of such horror, eclipsing even the vileness of war, that many of us are inclined just to block it out. This must never be allowed to happen. Time must not be allowed to soften its edges. Man’s unspeakable inhumanity to man – to woman – to child – at that time must never be forgotten. The depravity and bestiality of the destruction of so many lives, young, middle-aged and old, on grounds of race and religion, is an abomination that constantly threatens to happen again – if not in Srebrenica then elsewhere. It can happen again. We must never lose sight of that terrible fact. And remembering Serebrenica, every year, every month, every day, is one of then most potent ways we can fight it. Remember Srebrenica. REMEMBER SREBRENICA
