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Last updated:
Dec.19.2003.
Language
options: bosnian
/ english
Sept.20.2003.
Mister President, members of the Government, diplomatic corps, military, residents of this area and, especially, to the mothers and other family members of those who were killed and who will be buried today, I am grateful to the families of the victims who invited me to join you at this sacred moment of remembrance.
We remember this terrible crime because we dare not forget because we must pay tribute to the innocent lives, many of them children, who were snuffed out in what must be called genocidal madness.
Srebrenica shattered the illusion that the end of the cold war would sweep away such madness. Instead, it laid bare, for all the world to see, the vulnerability of ordinary people to the dark claims of religious and ethnic superiority.
Bad people who lusted for power killed these good people simply because of who they were. They sought power through genocide. But Srebrenica was the beginning of the end of genocide in Europe. It enabled me to secure NATO support for the bombing that led to the peace that put Bosnia and Herzegovina back on the long road to a normal life.
Nearly 60,000 troops from all across Europe, Canada and the United States came here to keep peace. We owe them a debt of gratitude, these men and women from all around the world. Many are still here. And I personally hope they will stay here as long as they are needed.
The cause of justice has been served in the Hague where some of those responsible for the massacres, not only this but others, face punishment for their crimes against humanity.
But those most responsible for the atrocities, the leaders, have not been apprehended. The search for them must continue until they are. We owe it to the men and boys buried in this hallowed ground. We owe it to the wives and children who survived them. We owe it to all Bosnian children yet unborn to see that justice is done.
Before the Allied forces took military action to stop aggression and genocide in Bosnia, many people said we would not succeed because violence was a part of the fabric of life in this part of the world and had been for hundreds of years. They were wrong as a matter of history, and wrong as a matter of morality. For much of your history Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs have lived together in peace, and the response to Srebrenica ending the conflict gives you a chance, but not a guarantee, to live that way again.
So as we mourn the dead, let us who still live remember our obligation to them to establish a lasting and just peace. Let us resolve to overcome our fears and mistrusts. Let us resolve to honor the dead by giving the children they left behind the blessings of the normal live they, too, should have had.
I hope this memorial and cemetery will help to foster the return of more refugees to Srebrenica. I hope they will always serve as a reminder of what happens when we allow political leaders to define one person’s dignity in terms of another’s humiliation. I hope the very mention of the name “Srebrenica” will remind every child in the world that pride in our own religious and ethnic heritage does not require or permit us to dehumanize or kill those who are different. I hope and pray that Srebrenica will be for all the world a sober reminder of our common humanity.
In the last eight years you have made great progress. Almost a million refugees have returned to their pre-war homes. Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks are working together to develop laws and institutions necessary to bring your country into its rightful place in Europe and the global community. But there is still much to be done. As I said, I hope the peacekeepers, including the Americans, will stay; I hope we will do more to help your economy; I hope more private citizens like me, who were alive at that time and know what you endured, will do what we can to help you come back.
To the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina and especially to the families of the victims, I hope you can build on the bedrock of Srebrenica a Bosnia in which all children are safe and loved, and able to live their dreams.
Children must be taught to hate; I hope you will teach them instead to trust, to choose the open hand over the clenched fist, the freedom of forgiveness over the prison of hatred, tomorrow’s dreams over yesterday’s nightmares.
In the Holy Koran the Prophet says that Allah put different people on the earth not that they might despise one another, but that they might come to know one another and learn from one another. In the Christian New Testament, Jesus says that all the law comes down to this: that we must love the Lord with all our heart, and love our neighbors as ourselves.
Let us remember the lost by learning to love our neighbors. Let us remember Allah’s admonition to get to know one another and learn from one another. May God bless the men and boys of Srebrenica and this sacred land their remains grace.
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