This is going to be a terrible blog to read. If you are having a fantastic day and want the mood to continue – don’t read this blog. If you are feeling suicidal, seek professional help – and don’t read this blog. If you want to try and answer some horribly difficult questions for me – maybe read this blog...
Writing this blog straight after a visit that just grabs your soul – puts it through a blender, then a washing machine, throws it off a cliff and then gets size 15 boots and stomps on it. I think I’m using this writing as a method of coping. May not even upload it.
Srebrenica
That name is now going to forever send a shiver down my spine.
Our day started innocently enough in Sarajevo with an early start and driving towards Serbia. However, our guide took us to an unscheduled stop near the border which was disturbingly informative about this area and the recent conflict.
Quick ‘facts’ – Srebrenica is a town in Bosnia where the only European genocide after World War 2 has been officially recognised by the UN. In 1995 the very basic story is that at least 25,000 people were fleeing the Serbian army to a U.N. Safe Haven in Srebrenica. The peacekeepers took 5000 into their compound for a couple of days and then sent them out again. The men and boys were separated from their families and disappeared. Some managed to flee to the hills and cross the border but many have been discovered in mass graves.
I have skipped over so much, including the ineffectiveness of the UN forces and the powerful documentary we sat through. I wish I had been able to bring my legal studies class here when we were studying world order – the ICTY would have had real significance and not just a random acronym. There has been a memorial set up and they’ve bought the factory where the UN were stationed and turned that into a museum and theatre. While I wanted a time machine to travel back and see some of the incredible places I’ve visited in their hey-day – this is one place I do not want to return to.
Now my therapy session with some rhetorical questions:
1. Why do we say “never again” and yet here we are?
After visiting the holocaust museum in Israel one of their themes is to remember the tragedy and to stop it from happening again. Well, that worked wonderfully well didn’t it... And my current international knowledge isn’t up to scratch but who knows what’s going on in Africa and round the world even at this exact moment.
Also, at the moment I’m down in the dumps – having all these pessimistic thoughts about what horrors man can commit. Yet I’m sure in a couple of days I’ll be back to blogging about the new impressive sight I’ve seen or the novel experience I’ve had the pleasure to partake. Maybe the story of Pandora’s Jar (Box) is true – the only way we cope is that we have blind hope that it will be better in the future.
2. Are there some problems that can never be solved?
As a maths teacher – one of the things I find reassuring is that nearly any problem can be solved cleanly and without argument. And even some previously ‘unsolvable’ mathematical proofs can be eventually solved with enough time and effort. But in this imperfect world of religious conflict and greed, are some problems always going to exist? Or is the cliché “time heals all wounds” the best we can come up with.
3. How can the world (and my trip) have such beauty and tragedy?
I’ve got nothing more... so I’ll just leave it to a higher authority and pray.
Amen.
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