Postcards from the Grave

"I chose this one because in 1995, when I was 14 years old, my hometown Kladanj became the first free territory under the control of the Bosnian Army, and welcomed refugees who were fleeing their homes in Eastern Bosnia from April 1992 until July 1995 when the genocide in Srebrenica was committed. That is probably how I ended up doing all this work. My childhood was marked by listening to terrifying stories about war crimes, killings and rape. During the war, my hometown was under siege, bombed and shelled, with no proper food and electricity and with a large number of refugees—it was a large humanitarian disaster. Women during the war were incredibly innovative, making food from things you’d not even imagine could be food. Then, in July 1995, my mum brought me to my elementary school which had been turned into a refuge for people fleeing genocide in Srebrenica. My mum made some rice cookies with jam and she delivered them to my elementary school along with some clothes. Then she told me that the Srebrenica genocide had taken place. That was the first time that I’d heard the word ‘genocide’ . I didn’t know the definition. But during this July, it was really hot and we ended up in my sports hall, which I had previously played sport in, seeing hundreds of women and children on the floor crying or losing consciousness and constantly speaking about their men, their brothers and fathers and how they didn’t know what had happened to them. Srebrenica and that moment really did mark my life. This book is an incredible, intimate, personal testimony and historical memoir written by Suljagić. He was actually a refugee in Srebrenica fleeing from the neighbouring city of Bratunac, during the siege of 1992-1995. He came from a neighbouring village, Voljavica, in eastern Bosnia. The army of the Republika Srpska was deliberately destroying the whole area of eastern Bosnia, with the intent of killing around 40,000 people. The United Nations proclaimed Srebrenica a safe zone in April 1993, guaranteeing that they would protect civilians. The army of BiH of that area gave up weapons and was really expecting to be protected but it did not happen. It was neither safe nor protected. Instead, genocide was committed. “Srebrenica and that moment really did mark my life” Suljagić was 17 when he got a job at the UN base because he knew a few words of English. He worked as a UN interpreter which allowed him to personally witness the horror and atrocities of the war and later the genocide. He lived through these three years of the siege of Srebrenica, through the hardship, seeing all these people suffer from hunger, being under constant fear of shelling of the beleaguered enclave, systematic killings, and barred food convoys as the army of the Republika Srpska was trying to take over the city. This is exactly what the book recounts: the absurdity of daily life in the besieged enclave until July 11, 1995 when around 30,000 unarmed refugees were handed over to their executioners by the very UN troops that were supposed to keep them safe. He wrote this book to witness what he and his people went through and survived in eastern Bosnia, to witness what his citizens endured, from the enforced conscription of civilians to the front lines, to attempts to maintain connections with civilisation. He’s really specific. As a UN interpreter, he survived the massacre at Potočari, and he was a witness to what happened in Srebrenica, including the failure of the international community, especially the UN and the Dutch battalion, in allowing one of the darkest moments of human history to happen. He witnessed this final bloody chapter in July when the men from the UN base in Potočari were separated from their families and taken to the Zvornik area, where they were executed and thrown into mass graves across the region of eastern Bosnia. Suljagić was the one who tried to draw up a list of 239 men, who were in the UN base, to at least try to save their lives. But, unfortunately, he later understood that these men were taken away and killed. The sharpness and richness of the book arises from his personal testimony and reminiscence of those ruthlessly killed during the genocide. The book also brings to the surface the issue of missing persons and uncovering of their remains in mass graves through Suljagić’s fight to find the remains of his father who was killed in 1992. It brings us a broader picture of genocide and a historical contribution to identifying found remains—the book showcases how innovative DNA forensic science created in 2000 by the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) solved the grisly conundrum of identifying each bone so that grieving families might find some closure. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter Suljagić finally found the body of his father but proceeds to explain how difficult the fight is to have a decent grave for your beloved one that you are able to go to and pray at. It’s important to mention this and the whole work of the International Commission on Missing Persons, which is now global and helping to find people in Syria, Libya, and even in Ukraine. But it started in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1996, and this book portrays the constant struggle in the search for missing people. The book also discusses the difficulties faced by returnees and how there are so many struggles and issues for returnees and genocide survivors and the problems the victims face on a daily basis because they have to live in the entity of the Republika Srpska, which actually is the ground on which genocide was committed in 1995. The ideology of Greater Serbia continues to live within this entity together with the relativization of crimes, the glorification of war and war participants. The facts proved by different courts about what happened at Srebrenica is being subjected to a growing chorus of denial, starting in Bosnia itself and echoing around the region and the world. This book is an incredible memoir, especially because Suljagić was also a court reporter at the Hague Tribunal, so he incorporates a lot of court evidence, along with his intimate testimonies, and he documents the story brilliantly. This all makes this book historically relevant. It’s been the most translated book ever on the Bosnian genocide. It’s probably the most understandable and comprehensive book, to give you a broad sense of what actually happened, not just in July 1995, but also from the beginning of the war in 1992. Yes. Now he is the Director of the genocide Memorial Center in Srebrenica (SMC) . PCRC is a proud partner of SMC through a memorandum of understanding and long collaboration for years. We have worked on numerous projects together, such as the annual summer school in Srebrenica. It represents multidisciplinary programs for learning and developing critical thinking in the areas of memory, art, transitional justice, and genocide prevention. We are really proud of this collaboration because the Srebrenica Memorial Center is the only state memorial dealing with the most recent past we have in the country. “This war was not a civil war, as it has sometimes been presented” Bosnia and Herzegovina is known for its nepotism and corruption, especially when it comes to occupying state positions, but when it comes to Emir Suljagić I can honestly say that the position of the Memorial Center’s director is in the hands of a person who deserves it and who works so hard to secure the effectiveness of this institution."