I am aware that the post you're about to read below is not related to the content I usually post but it would mean a world to me if you could spare a minute to read it
You see, today is July 11th, a memorial day for one of the only recognized genocides after the end of the second world war - Srebrenica. From 1992-1995 during the Bosnian war, a declared "UN safe area" became a murder site of over 8000 Muslim men and boys who sought refuge where they were promised they could find it.
Words such as 'tragic' or 'horrifiying' will never be enough to describe the evils of what happened. So why am I telling you about this? It is to make you aware of its existance, it's to make sure there are people out there that know about the cries of the mothers, wives, sisters as their sons, husbands, brothers are taken to a place they will never return from.
Every year more bone fragments are found. The survivors are contacted by the government that their family member's hand bone was found, their skull or femur maybe. Many of these victims will never be buried in full, only parts of them. Other parts are left to rot somewhere in hidden mass graves that will might never be found.
And even with all of the videos, photos, survivors and witnesses of this horror, the perpetrator remains in denial. "There was never a genocide, they faked it all to blame in on us!" (actual excuse) or "They are always trying to make us out to be the bad guys!". A famous streamer visited Sarajevo (capital of Bosnia) recently, and when he asked what was up with all the Srebrenica memoriabillia he was told it was about "some war that happened". It was never a war, it was an act of genocide, an attempt to purge muslims from their homes; it was a message that fell to deaf ears of the world.
I will not ask you to like this post, or to reblog it, or to follow me, or to share it with you friends. Even though all of this would certainly be appreciated, I am only asking you to remember, even if it's just for today, the mothers and their children, the boys who were one minute playing soccer in front of their school and the other were being driven on a road they would never return from. To think about the still alive women, known as "Mothers of Srebrenica" who are still looking for the bodies of their loved ones, even if they find just a singular bone, so they can finally put at rest, even if it's just that.
When it comes to the horrors of genocide we say these words with an ironic frequency. How do we short-circuit the re-run of this pitiful, sh
