An initiative to declare July 11 Bosnian Genocide Remembrance Day, in memory of the victims of the Srebrenica genocide of July 11, 1995, was initiated in the state of Connecticut in the United States.

According to the Hartford Courant, the bill was sponsored by Senator Saud Anwar, who said his intern, the son of Bosnian immigrants, inspired him to add the July 11 proposal to the bill.

“Genocides have happened through human history. The Holocaust is the worst we can recall. Every time we think about it, there is an emotion generated in our hearts: Never again will we allow this to happen.’ Unfortunately this happened despite that promise,” Anwar said.

“It’s important for us to pause occasionally to reflect on what has happened and check on the status of the planet, to see if similar hatred based on ethnicity or race or belief or religion … is being used to attack communities,” he added.

Several Bosnian-Americans offered testimony this week to the state legislature’s Joint Committee on Government Administration and Elections on the issue and spoke about the horrors they experienced during the Bosnian war.

Dr. David Pettigrew, professor of philosophy at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, also attended the hearing.

He commented on genocide denial in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the most recent high-profile case of Milorad Dodik, president of the country’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity, who said on Feb. 21 “Genocide did not happen there”.

Pettigrew said commemorating genocide helps fight denial.

“In Bosnia there are atrocity sites, concentration camps and execution sites where authorities will not allow memorials or even a plaque. Elie Weisel once said, ‘To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time’,” he said.

Pettigrew also noted that commemoration may prevent future genocides.