July 11, 2005 will mark the tenth anniversary of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia, which claimed the lives of between 7,000 and 10,000 Bosnian Muslims.

The forthcoming anniversary will be a somber event. The International Criminal Tribunal has only indicted 13 Bosnian Serbs in connection with the massacre – and of these five are still at large. Reconstruction aid started to flow to Srebrenica after municipal elections were held in 2000, but it has not been sufficient to revive the economy or trigger a large-scale return of refugees. Only about a thousand Muslims have returned to their former homes, out of the pre-war population of 30,000.

At the same time, the story of Srebrenica is one of heroism, resilience and determination. Instead of succumbing to despair and sadness, the survivors of Srebrenica have insisted that the legacy of this crime is addressed. They have also stiffened the resolve of the international community. There was little stomach for rebuilding Srebrenica until small groups of refugees took matters into their own hands in late 1999 and began to move back into their villages in the hills around Srebrenica, braving the winter and intimidation.

The survivors have not allowed the world to forget. On July 11 July 2000, several busloads of Muslims returned to commemorate the massacre at Potocari, where the 1995 events began. This shamed the international community into action, and the site has since been turned into a shrine. A large memorial has been built, and several hundred massacre victims have been reburied in a mass cemetery. The former battery factory, which served as the base for the Dutch battalion of UN peace-keepers, is to be turned into a museum. The survivors have not always been easy to work with, but the world owes them a huge debt.

The Advocacy Project has supported these brave Bosnians for five years. This support has taken several forms:

Promotion:

In 2000, Peter Lippman, from AP, visited the first wave of returnees in the ruins of their former houses above Srebrenica. His reports were distributed by AP. They can be found by visiting this address: http://www.advocacynet.org/news_view/news_vol_2.html

By 2002, the refugees were moving back to Srebenica itself, and Lippman returned to profile the work of the Forum of Srebrenica NGOs, a network of Muslim and Serb NGOs which formed to lobby for reconstruction. Lippman also wrote about Bosfam, a women’s group that runs a carpet-weaving center for widows in Tuzla. Lippman’s profiles were sent out by e-mail, and turned into an illustrated webpage on the AP site. (http://www.advocacynet.org/cpage_view/srebrenica_01aintro_18_85.html). These pages are among the most heavily-visited in our site.

In the summer of 2003, Aspen Brinton from AP attended the mass burial of victims and filmed material for a short film on Bosfam. An excerpt of the film is available here.

In June 2004, AP’s Director Iain Guest visited Tuzla, Srebrenica and the Hague and produced a series of weblogs (blogs) that are reproduced on the following pages.

Photographs:

These missions have generated over 100 photographs, which can be found in the photo library on this site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/advocacy_project/. These photos are available for use, free of charge.

Information capacity-building:

AP’s goal has always been that partners will be able to promote their own message and also use their websites and contacts to generate income for their campaigns and members. Working with a grant from the Dutch Refugee Foundation (http://www.vluchteling.org/index.asp) Peter Lippman helped the Forum and Bosfam to design their own web pages (http://www.bosfam.ba/)

Interns:

AP has also sent two interns to work with Bosfam in the summer of 2003 and 2004. Both interns produced blogs on their work, which can be found here and here. This coming summer, Mackenzie Frady, from the School of Business (Georgetown University) will be working with Bosfam as an intern.

Promotion and Fund-raising:

AP has displayed Bosfam’s carpets at three events in the United States. Together, these have raised over $5,000 for the weavers of Bosfam.

Future plans:

AP is hoping to bring all of these strands together around the 10th anniversary. In February of this year, Bosfam opened a small weaving center in Srebrenica with funds from the Dutch Refugee Foundation. Bosfam hopes to produce several carpets at the center which will be taken to Europe and the United States this coming summer by two Bosfam delegations, and distributed at events commemorating the 10th anniversary.

This will give the Bosfam widows a chance to remember the events of 1995, and also raise funds for their weaving center.

AP needs volunteers to help these delegations. Please contact us as info@advocacynet.org.