Long-distance Mourning and Synchronised Memories in a Global Context: Commemorating Srebrenica in Diaspora

Abstract

This paper discusses annual commemorative activities of July 11 in the Bosnian diaspora communities in Europe, the USA and Australia, a widely embraced grassroots trend commemorating the 1995 Srebrenica genocide that has become an important act of public memorialisation, reassertion of collective identity and a form of political activism among the Bosnian refugees and genocide survivors in different places across the globe where they have settled. In addition to serving as a cohesive factor among the members of the Bosnian diaspora communities and providing them with a social context in which they can collectively mourn their losses, the Srebrenica commemorations in diaspora have been increasingly reaching out to include members and leaders of the mainstream communities; hence becoming distinct, locally situated, global public events about Bosnia and Srebrenica rather than remaining the exclusive Bosnian immigrants' gatherings that they initially tended to be. In conjunction with the public commemorations, Bosnian diaspora organisations and initiatives have successfully lobbied the governments of their adopted countries to pass resolutions recognising the Srebrenica genocide and calling for July 11 to be acknowledged as the Srebrenica Remembrance Day.

Notes

1. M. Valenta and S. P. Ramet, “Bosnian Migrants: An Introduction”, in The Bosnian Diaspora: Integration of Transnational Communities, eds. Marko Valenta and Sabrina P. Ramet, Ashgate: Farnham, 2011, pp. 1–23; and Ministarstvo za ljudska prava i izbjeglice Bosne i Hercegovine, Pregled Stanja Bosanskohercegovačkog Stanovništva, [BiH Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees, Overview of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Population] Sarajevo, 2008.

2. Cf. H. Halilovich, “(Per)forming ‘trans-local’ homes: Bosnian Diaspora in Australia”, in Bosnian Diaspora: Integration in Transnational Communities, eds. Marko Valenta and Sabrina P. Ramet, Farnham: Ashgate, 2011, pp. 63–81.; Hariz Halilovich, “Trans-local Communities in the Age of Transnationalism: Bosnians in Diaspora”, International Migration, Vol. 50, No. 1, 2012, pp. 162–178; Hariz Halilovich, Places of Pain: Forced Displacement, Popular Memory and Trans-local Identities in Bosnian War-torn Communities, New York: Berghahn, 2013.

3. Norman Cigar, Genocide in Bosnia: The Policy of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ in Eastern Europe, College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1995.

4. Marko Valenta and Sabrina P. Ramet eds. Bosnian Diaspora: Integration in Transnational Communities, Farnham: Ashgate, 2011.

5. C.T. Dahlman, “Geographies of Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing: The Lessons of Bosnia-Herzegovina”, in The Geography of War and Peace: From Death Camps to Diplomats, ed. C. Flint, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. pp. 174–197.

6. G. Hage, “At home in the entrails of the West: multiculturalism, ‘ethnic food’ and migrant home–building”, in Community and Marginality in Sydney's West, eds. Helen Grace, Ghassan Hage, Lesley Johnson, Julie Langsworth, and Michael Symonds, Annandale: Pluto Press, 1997, pp. 99–153.

7. http://www.aph.gov.au/house/info/liveminutes/index.htm

8. Hariz Halilovich, Places of Pain, op. cit.

9. Val Colic-Peisker, “Bosnian refugees in Australia: identity, community and labour market integration”, New Issues in Refugee Research, Working Paper No. 97, 2003, Geneva: UNHCR.

10. Ibid.

11. These are Muslim religious gatherings involving commemorative prayers for the dead.

12. R. Coughlan, “Transnationalism in the Bosnian Diaspora in America”, in Bosnian Diaspora: Integration in Transnational Communities, eds. Marko Valenta and Sabrina P. Ramet, Farnham: Ashgate, 2011, pp. 105–122.

13. Hariz Halilovich, “Reclaiming Erased Lives: Archives, Records and Memories in Post-war Bosnia and the Bosnian Diaspora”, Archival Science, Vol. 14, No. 3–4, 2014, pp. 231-–247.

14. S. Truckey, “Little Bosnia”, St Louis Magazine, April 2008. Retrieved 20 May 2012 from http://www.stlmag.com/St-Louis-Magazine/April-2008/Little-Bosnia/#

15. P. McCarthy, “Prijedor: Lives from the Bosnian Genocide”, Missouri Passages, Vol. 4, No. 12, 2007. Retrieved 20 November 2009 from http://mohumanities.org/E-News/Dec07/prijedor.htm

16. Rezak Hukanović, The Tenth Circle of Hell: A Memoir of Life in the Death Camps of Bosnia, London: Little, Brown and Co, 1996.

17. http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/my-bosnians-hard-working-generous-strong/article_95d1d239-e278-5867-9213-a725a1bbee11.html

18. http://www.stlbosnians.com/tag/patrick-mccarthy/

19. http://mohistory.org/bosnia101

20. http://www.fontbonne.edu/academics/undergraduate/departments/englishcommunication/bosnia_memory_project/

21. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P6-TA-2009-0028&language=EN

22. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P6-TA-2009-0028&language=EN

23. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P6-TA-2009-0028&language=EN

24. Ibid.

25. http://www.srebrenica.org.uk/

26. http://www.bhcuk.com/index.html

27. Lynette Kelly, “Bosnian Refugees in Britain: Questioning Community”, Sociology Vol. 37, No. 1, 2003, pp. 35–49.

28. Ibid.

29. http://www.srebrenica.org.uk/memorial-day/message-chairman/

30. Hariz Halilovich, Places of Pain, op. cit.; and Hariz Halilovich, “Reclaiming erased lives” op. cit.

31. The story of the Salkić family features in Hariz Halilovich, Places of Pain, op. cit.

32. Fatima's story was described in more detail in Hariz Halilovich, “Reclaiming erased lives”, op. cit.

33. Leslie van Gelder, Weaving a Way Home: A Personal Journey Exploring Place and Story, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008, p. 58.