On November 26, 2021, Dr.Sci. David Pettigrew held a public lecture on Transitional Justice and Memorialization of war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the International University of Sarajevo (IUS). The lecture aimed at the need for the High Representative to establish national memorial sites at locations of the former concentration camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to protect the survivors and encourage transitional justice in the country.
Dr. Pettigrew emphasized that the situation in BiH is difficult because despite the verdicts made by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia that genocide happened in Srebrenica and war crimes in several other municipalities, Republika Srpska (RS) denies these facts and does not let the survivors establish memorial sites. Furthermore, RS discourages refugees from going back to their homes using psychological intimidations and denial of the genocide. This means that this is not a post-genocide society because the genocide still continues in the form of cultural genocide.
Transitional justice is an effort to right the wrong that was done. It is a statement of acceptance of responsibility for the committed crimes. Genocide denial, a form of hate speech, should be persecuted as well as glorification of the convicted war criminals. Despite the law which prohibits the denial of genocide and glorification of war criminals, RS still continues that practice, which is a betrayal of human rights and the right for memorialization. The survivors are not protected and they are still going through trauma and intimidation and one of means to bring them peace and justice is to enable them to establish memorials for the victims.
There are many places in RS where the genocide is denied: Foča, Kalinovik, Višegrad, etc. These are the places where Bosniaks were a majority before the war. In Omarska, which was one of the most notorious concentration camps during the war, the survivors have not been allowed to establish a memorial site. They are allowed to gather for about three hours to commemorate the victims.
The lecture was followed by a Q&A session where the attendees had an opportunity to ask questions and discuss this very important issue. The event was moderated by Dr.Sci. Ena Kazić-Çakar, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law at IUS.
Dr. Pettigrew is a Professor of Philosophy at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven where he also teaches Holocaust and Genocide Studies. He gives lectures and writes about the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina. His documentary film The Geography of Genocide in Srebrenica: Redeeming the Earth was an official selection for the Srebrenica International Film Festival in 2011. He is also a member of the Board of Bosnian-American Genocide Institute and Education Center in Chicago, a member of the International Expert Team of the Institute of Research of Genocide Canada, a member of the Steering Committee of the Yale University Genocide Studies Program and a member of KRUG 99, an association of independent individuals founded during the siege of Sarajevo.
