Ibrahim Becirovic, a survivor of the Srebrenica genocide and author of the book "Genocide in Srebrenica," addressed the Croatian Parliament today during a commemoration for the victims of the genocide. He emphasized the need for support and understanding for survivors to spread the truth and culture of remembrance.

“It's not easy to speak when emotions and memories of the brutal suffering of many relatives and friends in the UN-protected zone in Potocari and the senseless killings of previously captured men and boys at mass execution sites flood in,” Becirovic said in his opening remarks.

“You probably won't hear anything new from me. What were the real causes and motives for such senseless behavior, why the army and police of the Bosnian Serbs developed and implemented such a senseless and monstrous project of the killing industry of Bosniaks in the UN safe zone Srebrenica,” Becirovic continued.

He added that courts have not provided an answer to this question but have established individual legal and criminal responsibility for the perpetrators of the genocide. “They did not establish other types of responsibilities such as moral and political responsibility, or the responsibility of the ideology and politics that planned, designed, and implemented the project, which is the responsibility of the collectivity in whose name the crime was committed,” he noted.

Becirovic recalled a statement by Serbian politician Nikola Koljevic from late September 1992, where Koljevic said, “the historical national interest of Serbs is that all Serbs live in one state.”

“I thought at the time that it was a statement of daily political content and weight, but it had a historical character. In the last decade, I understand it as a centuries-old aspiration for other territories by ideological, political, and national leaders of all Serbs, both in Serbia and outside Serbia,” Becirovic emphasized, warning that today's platform of Serbian nationalists is based on this slogan, which has another name, ‘Serbian World.’

He also recalled the events of the early 1990s, which led to the UN Security Council's intervention and the declaration of Srebrenica as a safe zone, which did not prevent the army and police of the Bosnian Serbs “from committing the crime of genocide; otherwise, we would not be here today discussing this issue.”

“I am one of the survivors of the genocide. We, the victims, understand the challenges and threats of the new times that echo through the Balkans. We do not need pity; we need sincere understanding and support in our efforts to spread the truth about the genocide we survived, which is severely threatened today by attempts to falsify historical facts. All this is to spread the culture of remembrance so that it serves as one of many warnings that this evil never happens again to anyone,” Becirovic emphasized.

In conclusion, he expressed gratitude to the Republic of Croatia for sponsoring the Resolution on the Srebrenica Genocide before the United Nations General Assembly.