Keeping the memory of the Srebrenica genocide alive is key for preventing anything similar from happening in the future, speakers at the launch of the Leadership Initiative for Srebrenica said on Thursday.

The Leadership Initiative for Srebrenica is an informal group of former and current top elected and appointed officials, which is based on an idea by the Srebrenica Memorial Center and the project ‘Truth, Dialogue, Future’, supported by the Government of the United Kingdom.

UK Ambassador in BiH, Matthew Field, said at the conference that the importance of Srebrenica was clear to him since his first day serving the post and supporting the Memorial Center and the victims.

“Today we are united in a greater vision against hatred and denial,” he said, expressing his embassy’s dedication to this goal.

“However, there is still much to be done. In particular, bringing all perpetrators of crimes to justice,” he stressed.

“Truth is our strongest weapon and that is exactly why the Embassy participates in the ‘Truth, Dialogue, Future’ programme,” he said.

Among the speakers at the conference was also former Croatian PM, Jadranka Kosor.

“Throughout my political life, I have really proved that I am a friend of Srebrenica and that I have always advocated a culture of remembrance and have always been explicitly, clearly and loudly, against the denial of the Srebrenica genocide,” she said.

The events in Srebrenica have taught us “what hatred can lead to,” she said.

“Srebrenica has taught us what prejudices are, how prejudices give birth to evil and how that evil gives birth to immeasurable and indescribable pain,” Kosor said.

Those who deny that a genocide took place in Srebrenica also deny rulings by international courts and those who glorify war criminals “can not be in the European Union,” she stressed.

Former Croatian President, Ivo Josipovic, said that it is important for the truth about the genocide in Srebrenica to be presented to the world.

“It is difficult to imagine the pain felt by mothers, relatives, friends of all those who lost their lives in the genocide. They say that history is a teacher of life, but if we talk about killing, hatred and evil, we see that this phrase is just a phrase and is not a reality,” he said, arguing that evil seems to constantly reappear in different forms.

As for the initiative, Josipovic said that it is not political – since international courts have already established that a genocide took place – but that its goal is to provide an “objective, truthful perspective on the past” and to prevent similar tragedies in the future.