Each year on July 11^th, many activists and officials from around the world attend the Srebrenica Genocide Commemoration in Potocari, Bosnia.  This year I had the honor of joining Women in Black on their trip to the commemoration.  You can see a quick summary of the day’s events in the video below (pay special attention to the caskets towards the end).

As you saw in the video, even though it’s been fourteen years since the genocide, victims’ bodies and body parts are still being found.  Fourteen years later and families are still burying 534 bodies!  Fourteen years later and these families are just getting the chance to get closure from the atrocities?  And there are so many families that will still find their mother’s or father’s or son’s or daughter’s or sister’s or brother’s body, or maybe just a finger or a leg.  How are they ever supposed to get closure and move on?  Fourteen years seems like a long time and seems long enough to recover and heal.  But I don’t know how these families can move on when they have yet to find their family members and bury them.  I don’t have words to express the sadness of this situation.

I don’t think there’s anything an activist organization can do to heal the wounds of victims’ families, but I do think that activists can do their best to offer families support.  Women in Black has been the only Serbian organization to show solidarity to victims’ families.  And it is clear that this solidarity and support is appreciated by Bosnians.  Let me explain.

At the commemoration, I was fortunate enough to meet the U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia, a Congressman from Ohio and his wife.  My co-fellow, Donna, and I were talking about how much easier it is to meet international officials when you are abroad than when you are in your own country.  Since the number of English-speaking individuals, especially from America, is so limited here, Donna and I always get introduced to other Americans in the vicinity.  This happens when there is another student like ourselves around, or even when there are high-up officials like the Ambassador and Congressman - it’s great.  We most likely would not have been introduced to them back home.

Even though I’m going off on a tangent, the reason I bring this up is because of something very special the Congressman’s wife, Laurie, said to me and Donna.  WIB left Belgrade at 6am but still arrived to the commemoration a few minutes late due to heavy traffic right outside of Potocari.  So Laurie told us that a collective gasp came over the crowd when WIB walked on to the site.  This was another moment that made me very proud of the organization I’m working with this summer.  To know that WIB is making a difference to the families of victims is reason enough to love the work they are doing.

It’s also great that Bosnians support WIB’s work, even though many of the activists are Serbian.  I’m happy to see that Bosnians have not gotten wrapped up into nationalistic stereotypes by holding grudges against all Serbians because of the atrocities that certain Serbs committed against them.

Every July, Women in Black’s (WIB) work focuses on commemorating the atrocities that took place on July 11^th, 1995 in Srebrenica, Bosnia.  In 1995, 8,000 Bosnian men and boys were killed in Srebrenica, a town considered a UN safe area.  This past July 10^th, a day before the big day of commemoration, WIB held two vigils in remembrance of the victims of Srebrenica, and to show support and solidarity to the families of victims.

The first vigil took place from 12pm to 1pm in a park in Belgrade.  WIB stood silent and held up banners asking the public to never forget the victims of Srebrenica.  Serbian police attended this vigil to ensure WIB’s safety and make sure that no one harassed or hurt WIB activists.  That afternoon, everything went smoothly.

Unfortunately, the second vigil of the day, at 7:30pm in Republic Square, Belgrade’s main public square, was met with a lot more animosity.  When we got to the square there was a group of Serbian nationalists standing in the square, waiting for our arrival.  What happened after illustrated stark parallels between love and hate.  WIB was working on spreading more love in the world, while Serbian nationalists were simply promoting hate.

WIB’s actual vigil was beautiful: Women in Black activists stood next to each other surrounding a blanket with imprinted roses.  Each activist also held a rose, each one symbolizing a victim of the Srebrenica Genocide.  In silence, WIB commemorated the 8,000 men and boys that were killed.

Even though the commemoration was beautiful, it was extremely difficult to not listen to the hate being spewed by the individuals standing on the other side.  Policemen were standing in a line blocking WIB from the crowd for protection.  The relationship between WIB and policemen is complicated as it’s unclear whether the police are there just to protect WIB, or to make sure they don’t get out of line.  Still, in this specific scenario, I was proud of the protection the police provided.

In front of the policemen, however, Serb nationalists were singing Serbian nationalistic songs, repeatedly chanting “Serbia,” and even making threats to all the WIB activists present.  While the nationalists were speaking in Serbian, it didn’t take more than a second to feel the hate that was emanating from them.  My dear activist friends translated to me many of the things that the nationalists said to us.  Here’s a sample: “whores in black,” “witches in black,” “bitches in black.”  They also mentioned something about killing homosexuals, and threatened to rape the activists with the roses they were holding.  While these things in themselves are disgusting and horrific, I think the worst part was that they were holding up pictures of Karadzic and Mladic and chanting their names in praise!

Karadzic and Mladic are war criminals that committed numerous war atrocities during the Bosnian War.  Karadzic is currently on trial for war crimes, including genocide, at the International Criminal Court of the former Yugoslavia.  Mladic was the commander of the Army of Republika Srpska, the units that committed the Srebrenica genocide, and is unfortunately still at large.

This was both my saddest moment in Belgrade, as well as my proudest moment to be a part of Women in Black.  My mind just can’t comprehend how so many people can praise individuals like Karadzic and Mladic??  I’m trying to understand - is it ignorance? Is it lack of education? Is it immaturity? Is it plain stupidity?  I really don’t know the answer.  And of course, it was so sad to see WIB activists be threatened and cursed at like this.  These activists are such brave individuals with great hearts, and the last thing they deserve is to hear such insults while doing something good by standing up against evil.

Another issue I could not understand was why the Serb nationalists felt the need to continue chanting “Serbia.”  Why the nationalistic insistence?  Is Serbia such a great nation that it can heartlessly kill thousands of people and still garner support?  While the WIB vigil of course has numerous political implications behind it, the real purpose of it was to remember the victims of Srebrenica, to show comradery to their families, and pay respect to all those who suffered.  The point of the vigil was not to bring down the Serbian government or punish perpetrators, but it was simply to commemorate and remember.  Although we can never truly understand the depth of victims’ families sorrow, we can understand that the pain they have suffered, of losing their children to crimes of hate, is the worst pain a parent can feel.  But this nationalist group would not stop shouting profanities and nationalistic chants at us - they would not even let us simply commemorate and mourn the loss of thousands of lives.

Of course I am a supporter of free speech and a demonstration of free speech was shown by both WIB and Serb nationalists on July 10^th, 2009.  Everyone has the right to their own opinion, and there is no doubt about that in my mind.  But it’s heartbreaking to see how so many people’s beliefs are simply full of hate and evil.

The vigil was an experience I will never forget.  I highly commend Women in Black for fighting such hate and not losing hope when confronted with such offensive remarks.

You can see a clip of the WIB vigil as well as the nationalistic demonstration below.

When was the last time that you went three days without being able to use your cell phone or access internet?  Well that was me this weekend in Leskovac (pronounced Les-ka-witz).  In Leskovac, I attended a three day conference hosted by Women in Black Belgrade and attended by individuals from the larger Women in Black Network.  We left Friday morning by car and got plenty lost before finally finding our way to Leskovac.

Upon arrival, we met with activists from the WIB Network and participated in an anti-military demonstration.  This demonstration consisted of activists holding banners promoting peace, illustrating the hierarchical nature of the military and showing that the military can be broken down.  During the demonstration, WIB created a pyramid using boxes that listed names of various war-torn countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, The Sudan, etc.  One by one, activists removed a box from the pyramid until it eventually tumbled down, conveying that militarism can be conquered.

After this show of anti-militarism, WIB activists marched around town exhibiting other symbols of peace.  For example, at one point they walked under a caterpillar costume, each activist being a bump of the caterpillar.  Through this the activists were illustrating that while peace processes may be slow, peace does eventually come and win over evil.  The activists also displayed a military parachute that was decorated with peace symbols illustrating that the military should be rebuilt into an instrument of peace.

After this creative demonstration ended, we packed ourselves into a bus and headed up into the mountains to reach our hotel, where we also lost all connectivity with the outside world.  We spent the rest of the day attending a WIB workshop on alternatives to militarism.  During the workshop, we broke into groups and debated what alternatives to militarism that countries could use and discussed them with the larger network that was present.  The international attendees, including me, tried to participate as much as we could with the help of translators.  Whoever told me that I didn’t need to learn Serbian to come to Belgrade was wrong. J  I’m hoping to learn enough to get around in the next few weeks.

Workshops continued for the rest of the weekend and engaged women and male activists from the network.  But the highlight of the weekend was the party held on Saturday night.  That’s when the women of WIB let loose and danced the night away.  Since the majority of the women are in their fifties and sixties, I didn’t expect much dancing to go on.  But they surprised me.  There was definitely more hip-shaking than I expected.  I was shocked by how much energy they all had, but another activist explained to me that their energy came “from their pain.”

So on Sunday, after a few more workshops, our weekend in Leskovac came to an end.  Before it was over, Donna and I got invited to the homes of many activists whom we could stay with while doing work outside of Belgrade.  We’re going to be interviewing many WIB activists, both in and outside of Belgrade, so we’ll probably be taking them up on their offers soon.  I’ll keep you updated on how it goes!

I landed in Belgrade yesterday and I’m currently sitting in the Women in Black (WIB) office!  I haven’t seen too much of the city yet but have gotten glimpses on the way from the airport and on the way to the office.  It seems like a nice city but it will take some time to get used to and some time to get to know my way around.  I can already tell that it will be a challenge being a pescetarian here!

Donna (my co-fellow) and I are currently staying with Jennifer, who also works at Women in Black.  We are going apartment hunting today and tomorrow and hoping to have something set by this weekend.  But let’s see how long it takes.

I slept for about 12 hours last night to get over my jet-lag, but I’m apparently still tired.  I think it’ll take a few days to get adjusted.  But right now I’m enjoying a cup of black coffee (another thing that will take me time to get used to!) that was just given to me.  In Belgrade it is assumed that if you’re at the office, you want a cup of coffee at multiple points in the day.

I came into the office briefly yesterday but today will be my first full day.  I’m going to be spending a good part of my day reading through Women in Black’s literature to get myself more acquainted with the organization.  I have yet to meet Stasa, who founded the Belgrade division of Women in Black, but I have met other office staff and I’m already looking forward to working with them.  Once I meet and sit down with Stasa, my priorities and responsibilities for the next two months should become clearer.

But I’m already excited for this weekend because we’ll be making a trip with WIB to South Serbia on Friday.  WIB will be conducting street performances and a series of educational seminars on militarism and women’s fight against militarism around the world.  Donna and I will be documenting their efforts this weekend and bringing them to light in the U.S.  I can’t wait to see, and be part of, my first Women in Black on-the-street demonstration!

I’m sure I’ll have lots to share with you this weekend from South Serbia, and even next week once I’m all settled in and have time to explore Belgrade.  Will keep you posted!

Street Corner

Street Corner