Marching against forgotten: Srebrenica as a bridge between western and eastern

Radams Rodrigues Neto1

After sixteen years I resolve write a short text about the Srebrenica massacre as a little contribution for the human rights case in general and Bosnian case in specifically. Of course, I try establishing as a historian an interesting parallel between the History (academically discipline) and the discussions of contemporary society. As a said before some motivations helped me to work with a so tragic and distant fact (not in time, because we are talking a recent fact if we admit the historians normally work with facts of are centuries or millenniums of distance from us) by a Brazilian and it involves my particular life and also my academically ambitions. In reality I was published in a local newspaper a critical about Srebrenica massacre in 2010.on that article I used (very short text) the final of world cup (Spain versus Holland) for dissertate about the omission of Europeans potencies. In opportunity I show how two monarchies from Europe enjoy an event and how FIFA was extremely negligent when that organization dont accepted made a minute of silence for the victims of Srebrenica massacre. By now I have anothers plains, the most ambitious of that is ingress on PostGraduation program for history cultural of present times, in State University of Santa Catarina. The subscription starting in September and I plain submit a project of mastering where I work with a with some aspects of cultural history (daily, memory and representation) my theme will be the building of ethnic identity in Bosnian war through the analyses of two comic books by Joe Sacco (the famous Maltese rooted in U.S.A. who created in early 90th the comic journalism, a technique with mix journalist work with drawing ambiance) and intercalate that narrative with a non visual but literary narrative, a old friend of Bosnians called the Diary of Zlata Filipovi. Zlata an 11 years old girl describe the daily of children during the siege of Sarajevo. That book was printed by UNICEF in serb-croat. The text of you will read on the next lines demonstrate all the problematic around the war. I try demonstrating a universe of historical possibilities for understand the raises of that conflict and not reaffirmation the official discourse of says the Bosnian war is a reflex of the dismembering of ex-Yugoslavia. What is proposing is giving an extra step and look for a conceptual problem, the eastern identity.

Brazilian historian graduated by UNESC (Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense)

1. Have an ancient tradition, a part of Brazilian folklore, called a procisso das almas 2 the bases of that legend is a suppose theory of the dead leaving his sepultures and marching in procession from the cemetery to the church in midnight during the celebration of day of the dead. It is a typically history of the Brazilian folklore from interior of Brazil a country from South America and the largest catholic country in the world. In a first look Brazil have a giant distance from Bosnia-Herzegovina and a so distinct culture, but a tragically fact approximates that two countries creating an incredible parallel. This fact was occurred on July, 11, 1995. The place was Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia. The fact is The Procession of Souls. During the past sixteenth years the Bosnia made an inverse way of the Brazilian legend. But in this case is not the dead who abandoned his sepultures and marching but the citizens who make a journey of 110 km reconstruction the history of exodus of many Bosnians: fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters condemned to wander for a torn Bosnia and the ethnic conflict of the most shocking recent European history. This march is called the march for peace and is the theme of the Gustavo Silva new book.3 The 110 kilometers of the March for Peace are made by blank stares, destructed lives, uncertain futures and a so big missing. That modesty homage made in memory of the most 8.000 persons killed, raped or conduced to camps of work made us feel a double feeling. An enormous pain which is gradual transforms in a big perplexity. The pain is because in few days (during 11 days) lost more than 8.000 lives. But the perplexity is deeper and politically disturbing. The Europe, that inviolable heritage, sole4 holder of the Hellenic heritage, the Europe which was enlighten by ideas and positivity for found the modern sociology, that Europe what fight against despotic monarchs and clerics for found a island of peace and prosperity under one name from ancient Greek mythology. 5

2 3

The procession of souls in a literal translation. See Gustavo Silva. Da rosa ao p: Histrias da Bsnia ps-genocdio. Rio de Janeiro: Tinta Negra Bazar Editorial, 2011. 4 The majority of works recovered from Hellenic period was first translated by the Arabs and just after 200/300 years Europe will start translate that works into Latin language. 5 Europa was a Phoenician woman from a high lineage daugther of Agenor king of Phoenicia, Europa was descendent of Nymph the beloved of Zeus. Zeus was passionate by the charming Europa and for his wife Hera dont perception his adultery Zeus transforms himself in a white bull and escape with Europa to Creta. The early literary reference about Europa is the universal classic Iliad wrote probably during the 8 century BCE.

2. That continent can impose by a so violent form his culture introducing models of subordination and inferiority for every different or non-European cultures, denominating barbarians (pretext which was used for steal for non-European lands raw materials and every ecological treasures) all his opposites. The big question is: How a so civilized continent, a cultural hegemony can permit genocide (more one) on his lands? Why the troops of ONU, which was there for protect the civilians, dont made nothing or few attitudes during the genocide? How Karadi and Mladi pass to much time in freedom without escape for the lands where they was wanted? We, the non-civilized world was always economically unviable for the develop models largely disseminated by European theorists and exactly because that we had a natural necessity of be colony and not metropolis. The foreigner domination was always a speech of pretext to decimate our populations. We needed from foreign domination, that the lights of European culture and civilization redeemed us from the guilt of being wild, alien, barbaric and oriental. Edward Said, one the most important scholars of the XX century are the one reference in this kind discussion. On his most important work entitled Orientalism Western conceptions of the Orient Said discuss how the image of Orient was create for represent the societies on east of the Western Europe. That image was portrayed by painters, musicians, literates and scientists and reproduced in popular and erudite culture and also in academy around the Western Europe (including in many cases the North America). 6 The image was created by Europe, which has appropriated the name of the West to make a deliberate counterpoint to the idealized East rival, had been that the East is a mystical land, despotic, sensual and exotic, where courage and bravery of any British or French official military should be tested. Thus, the East is, by convention, represented as a land where violence reigns, which efforts for any kind of peace are going and where the main villains await blood-thirsty for a new conflict. The Srebrenica massacre was at best a great story for the West. This story was fantastic account of the white people, blonde, with bright eyes who lived in part of the ancient Hellenic world, but for religious reasons both the victims Bosnian Muslims and their tormentors the majority religion of Serbia is Christian Orthodox were seen as a continuation, at best, a middle world between Europe and the Orient. Hitler used to say that the Slavs were a big mess of Europe, and in his mad plan for world domination, Hitler had found a role for the Slavs, servitude, slavery. In the Bosnian war and especially in the Srebrenica massacre, the leaders of nations that united won totalitarianism and saved Europe from the totalitarian despotism, were even more cruel than Hitler, because they simply ignored the massacre of more than 8,000 civilians in a place where is still geographically Europe.
6

See Edward W. Said. Orientalism Western Conceptions of the Orient. U.S.A: Vintage Books, 1978.

3. After the war in Bosnia, there was more ethnic tensions in the Balkans, this time in the Kosovo region, an area south of Serbia who fought for emancipation since the end of Yugoslavia, become a war in 1999 and nine years later culminate in the independence of this small country. This conflict was motivated by old disputes between Serbs and ethnic Albanians back to the middle ages. Kosovo is an important reference for the Slavs in general, but also to the Albanians and the Balkans in general, it was there that on June 28, 1389 the troops of Sultan Murat won the coalition of kingdoms Balkan Christian and began the process of "orientalization" East-Central Europe. In the three centuries following the Ottoman would expand their dominoes across the region coming to the suburbs of Vienna, although this was never dominated by the Ottoman Empire. One of the greatest exponents of Albanian literature, Ismail Kadare7 portrayed the battle of Kosovo in one of his novels entitled "Three Elegies for Kosovo.. They are pictured in one of the three parts of the book the wanderings of that survived rhapsodes from the Balkan Turkish offensive. They wander aimlessly, wandering too far off lands without having nowhere else to turn. Join them a young man named Ibrahim, the Turkish army deserter who wants to convert to Christianity, but cannot leave the Islamic faith. Ibrahim follow the rhapsodes who wandering up apparently Germanic lands, while in one of these cities they come, the young Ibrahim was arrested and condemned by the Inquisition to burn at the stake for the crime of heresy. Their sin was to aim to have two religions at the same time. In the book describes how Ibrahim had been burned alive at the stake and his last cry was in Latin, a resounding NON! A denial of this ineffable world. The "curse" of Ibrahim seems to have taken the West in the world after the fall of the twin towers. There is a policy of covert depreciation of military intervention in East and East is the land asset of some democratic governments today. The West is where the Islamic faith have been multiplying in recent years, many Western European countries has been receiving waves of migratory individuals of Muslim majority countries and the conversions are another factor in the growth of this creed in Europe. However, the Balkans, where the three religions coexist for at least five hundred years, precisely there where the East kisses West Ibrahim in his indecision prophesied that the descendants of rhapsodes colleagues would do with each other.

See Ismail Kadare. Three Elegies for Kosovo. London: Vintage Books, 2000.

4. The March for Peace arrives at the monument honoring the victims of the Srebrenica massacre. From time to time find new mass graves and bodies are transferred to the cemetery where they are buried. It is a Muslim practice putting green robes on the coffins, these robes embroidered in gold are usually some excerpts from the Koran in Arabic. The official language of Bosnia is a variation of the Serbo-Croat, called Bosanski. However, it is the call to prayer Ezan, a song in form of regret played by the muezzin and the recitation of passages from the Koran in Arabic that compose the symphony of voices from the march. After all the tributes given the thousands of people return to their present home in several cities in Bosnia. These survivors of the Bosnian war roam no more to the historical Bosnia, a model of tolerance and coexistence of different ethnic and religious groups. The old multi-ethnic Bosnia is no more, now there are only areas that separate ethnic Croats, Bosnians and Serbs. The inability to unite the interests of these three ethnic groups is reflected in politics, where the presidency is a split between three representatives of each ethnic group. It's night and most of the participants of the March for Peace is at home, but someone is missing! Someone was on the monument, not difficult to determine who returned the 8.732 victims for some July, 11. Perhaps a father who gave a false trail in the forest to save his son, a brother who was left off his name in some list of workers monitoring by the army of the UN's peacekeeping mission8. These frail bodies, these sad faces today somehow joined the March for Peace. These people Were reminded, someone regained his humanity so devoid by his captors who perpetrated the biggest ethnic cleansing on European soil since the Second World War and by the civilized West who turned his back for the Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica and telling them: "You are out of our jurisdiction!". Radams Brazil, July, 11 2011. Sixteen years after...

That lines are in memory of the thousands Bosnians, Croatians and Serbians civilians killed in a stupid war what was not stopped by a suppose Western Rational Civilization! Any part of that text can be used without reference the context or used as ideological propaganda!
8

It was really happened with the famous bosnian journalist and survivor of Srebrenica massacre Hassan Nuhanovid.