Srebrenica genocide anniversary: Survivor offers lessons from what he endured

As the world marks July 11 as United Nations-designated International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide, a Bosnian-American filmmaker, Harun Mehmedinovic who survived the Bosnian genocide of 1992-95 is running a project that is at once an act of historical documentation and a "practical guide to staying alive".Harun, who was nine-years-old when the genocide started in 1992, lived with his parents in Sarajevo. He survived the carnage carried out by Serb extremists during the Yugoslavian civil war and later moved to the USA.He has since launched a project called "Acts of Reburial" around a year ago in which he has been documenting incidents of mass killings across Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) through testimonies from survivors along with offering survivor lessons by posting videos on social media accounts.“I decided to start the project in response to what was happening in Gaza as it is witnessing a similar pattern. Also, I feel we Bosnians have failed the planet by not talking enough about our genocide and its lessons to the outside world,” Harun told TOI from B&H, adding that while starting the project, he was "shocked to know that how little educational material in English langauge was available on the Bosnian genocide".

The genocide of the Bosnian Muslims began after the army of Republika Srpska, comprising Bosnian Serbs, started fighting against the army of Republic of B&H which had declared independence from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in March 1992. The nationalist Serbs were against the declaration of independence by the Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks).However, the Serb authorities wanted to annex Bosnia for ‘Greater Serbia’, for which they started attacking the Bosniaks leading to the Bosnian war in which nearly 1 lakh people were killed.

The Serb soldiers started to remove the Bosniaks and Croats from their land by largely targeting the Bosniaks in an alleged "ethnic cleansing". Notably, over a million Bosniaks were displaced from their homes during the war.Harun has been offering 'genocide survival lessons' on his public social media accounts. He has so far offered over "30 Dos and Don’ts to survive a genocide".“When you are being summoned for ‘questioning’, there are high chances that you will be detained, tortured and murdered.

If you escape to actual safety, do not be lured back to your house by false promises of safety. If any dehumanising propaganda is being run against you and your people, assume it’s a lead up to genocide. Similarly, when paramilitary, army or random militia or citizen checkpoints start popping up in your area and your freedom of movement is restricted, expect that some terrible things are about to happen,” said Harun, citing one of his lessons to survive a genocide.He further said, “Don’t bank on your wealth or fame to save you. Take time to intimately learn the landscape around you and remember that having been a saint all your life won’t save you. Most importantly, if you have weapons, never give them to someone promising that you will be safe.”Hoping that the project will make the people, particularly the younger generation, more aware, he said since the start of the project, many Bosnians have approached him to find their missing family members and the perpetrators behind their killings.“It was the most sad part of this whole project as it shows that they lost all faith in the justice system. I hope that the perpetrators who are still roaming freely, will one day face justice..."