An interactive lecture held on topic "Learning and witnessing: Genocide in Srebrenica in the eyes of Bosnian and Australian students"
On the occasion of marking the 29th Anniversary of the genocide against Bosniaks in the "United Nations Safe Zone" Srebrenica, an interactive lecture "Learning and witnessing: Genocide in Srebrenica in the eyes of Bosnian and Australian students" was held at the University of Sarajevo on 2 July.
Prof. Dr. Hariz Halilović, award-winning anthropologist and author, professor of global studies at RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia) and Dr. Hasan Nuhanović, a witness to the genocide in Srebrenica, an activist, and an employee of the Srebrenica Memorial Center - Potočari, who received his doctorate in 2022 at RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia) spoke about this topic.
The lecture and meeting of Bosnian and Australian students was attended by the management of the University of Sarajevo, representatives of the Faculty of Law and the Institute of History of the University of Sarajevo, representatives of the Student Parliament of the University of Sarajevo, Dr. Tuba Boz, lecturer at RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia), Dr. Adis Elias Fejzić, sculptor and visual artist, assistant at RMIT University, 20 students of international and global studies at RMIT University, and students of the University of Sarajevo.
The students of RMIT University and the University of Sarajevo were greeted by Prof. Dr. Dženana Husremović, Vice-Rector for Teaching and Student Affairs, and Prof. Dr. Rifat Škrijelj, Rector, who looked back on last year's gathering of Melburg and Sarajevo students and expressed his satisfaction that this initiative has meanwhile been strengthened and made official by the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between these two universities and emphasized that this gathering is the final representation and confirmation of its essence and significance. He thanked Professor Hariz Halilović and his colleagues for their contribution to the implementation of the Memorandum, but also for the interest of Australian students in important topics such as the genocide in Srebrenica. He concluded that it is important to fight for peace with the joint energy of young people so that something similar never happens again.
Prof. Dr. Hariz Halilović emphasized that the cooperation between RMIT University and the University of Sarajevo is the first cooperation at the university level between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Australia, and that its formalization has improved the previous standard of connecting young people. He pointed out that the lecture was one of the activities of their study trip, as part of which they had previously stayed in The Hague, and concluded that the meeting of Australian and Sarajevo students is proof of the solidarity of young people, who, as creators of a brighter and more prosperous future, are interested in an objective perspective of the tragic past that is a transgenerational issue.
In a conversation with curious students, Dr. Hasan Nuhanović spoke from a dual position - as a witness to the genocide in Srebrenica, and as an activist and researcher of the consequences of ethnic cleansing and the identification of missing persons. He emphasized that this complex problem requires an objective and rational interdisciplinary approach based solely on facts, adding that this approach is opposed to denial and the pernicious politics of denial, whose tendencies are still a threat to the stability and peace of Bosnia and Herzegovina thirty years later. Through the conclusions of his doctoral thesis, he spoke about the necessity of confronting the past by fostering memorialization, and about the concepts of disclosing the truth about the genocide in Srebrenica and recognition as a prerequisite for the final process of forgiveness and reconciliation, as well as for the sustainability of peace.
