Today it's been 18 years since the Srebrenica genocide. I'd rather keep everything sad outside the blog but it is important, and even a responsibility to talk about the genocide for those unaware of it. I'm usually in Bosnia this time of the year where the Memorial Day is clearly marked, but this year I'm, for the first time in very long, in Sweden and I'm pleasantly surprised by the presence of the day even here, in social media, news, radio, and the manifestations organized in different Swedish cities. It was a very nice manifestation in central Stockholm with speeches from politicians (including Mona Sahlin), a human rights activist from Serbia, a man from Srebrenica and a singer who ended the event beautifully before we put flowers in the water. It was hard to hold back tears.

But for me the main thing this day is not to mourn, even if it is difficult to keep emotions in check. For me, the main thing is to spread knowledge about this, to make people aware that something like this can happen in modern day society. I want people in Sweden and the world to understand that my parents laughed at the nationalists and their propaganda, just as we're laughing at the Swedish nationalist parties, so sure of that there are enough people with common sense that their ideologies will never get enough support. I want you to understand that for my parents, a bloody war felt as unreal as a war in Sweden seems to us today. Unfortunately, the leaders of these extreme nationalist parties, in fact, are intellectual and cleverly manipulative, despite their disturbed values, and nothing tells us that we are safe from these ideologies in this "modern" Europe, where people let the genocide and ethnic cleansing take place only 18 years ago. Even today there are people who still believe in the war criminal's propaganda, who denies the genocide, or even worse, justifies the killing of thousands of people. But still today remains of dead people are found. Today, a further 409 people will be buried. Don't let it happen again. Use the genocide in Srebrenica as a reference and an example, closer in time than World War II in Germany, of what can happen if we let nationalist forces go too far.

We, immigrants, are all Bosnian ambassadors. It is our duty to represent, speak for and spread knowledge of Bosnia & Herzegovina. It's the least we can do, and today we have all the funds for it. Since writing is not my best skill, I will end this post by refering to other articles from Swedish news sites where you can read more about this.

Aftonbladet: Våga tala om rasismens yttersta konsekvenser
Svenska Dagbladet: Vårt ansvar att inte glömma
Expressen: Ultranationalism bakom folkmordet

(And for you who are thinking about commenting "Bosniaks also murdered, it's not only the Serbs fault, media is blaming the Serbs, etc" - don't. I have had the discussion on my blog lots of times and I summarize it again: There is a difference between attacking and defending, and murdering civilians. Nothing justifies the genocide in Srebrenica. Nothing justifies the killing of civilians and innocent people regardless of nationality. If my father would have murdered civilians in the war, I would have judged him for that. This is not about trying to make a nation look bad or blaming a whole ethnic group, this is all about highlighting something bad that has been to learn from it and to be able to work towards a future society in which different people can live side by side without nationalism and racism. End of story.)