| 1. | PROLOGUE |
| 2. | BACKGROUND |
| 3. | FACTS & EVIDENCE |
| 3.1. | Historical Context |
| 3.2. | Reconstruction |
| 3.3. | International Community |
| 3.4. | Intent and Denial |
| 3.5. | Post-Genocide Society |
| 4. | HOW TO LEARN ABOUT THE PAST |
| 5. | TRANSGENERATIONAL MEMORY |
| 6. | REFERENCES |
|
The Art of Understanding #2
TRANSGENERATIONAL MEMORY |
|
The Art of Understanding #1
MAPPING GENOCIDE |
| 1. | PROLOGUE |
| 2. | BACKGROUND |
| 3. | FACTS & EVIDENCE |
| 3.1. | Historical Context |
| 3.2. | Reconstruction |
| 3.3. | International Community |
| 3.4. | Intent and Denial |
| 3.5. | Post-Genocide Society |
| 4. | HOW TO LEARN ABOUT THE PAST |
| 5. | TRANSGENERATIONAL MEMORY |
| 6. | REFERENCES |
|
The Art of Understanding #2
TRANSGENERATIONAL MEMORY |
|
The Art of Understanding #1
MAPPING GENOCIDE |
3.5.
Post-Genocide Society
The Post-Genocide Society
Dr Janja Beč-Neumann, Sociologist, genocide researcher, author and lecturer
"...How do we live after genocide? For those who survived and for new generations. I think that this traumatic event is transgenerational.
Reconciliation in not a term from the social science discourse. Reconciliation is from the religious discourse. Reconciliation is a term from the religious discourse applied in the social sciences and even more in politics, in everyday life politics. What is more difficult to understand is that reconciliation exists only in Christianity: Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox. Reconciliation as a word does not exist in Islam and Judaism. I mentioned the genocide in Guatemala against the Mayan people and I mentioned the genocide in Cambodia against the Khmer people. In both languages the word ‘reconciliation’ does not exist. They use the word ‘healing’. Healing by knowing what has happened and healing through the heart. The Khmer language and the Mayan language are totally different languages, but the practice is similar. Genocide as a social practice creates new categories, new words, and you know about that, as well.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was possible in South Africa because of the great leader, Nelson Mandela, what prosecutor and judge Goldstone already mentioned. I’m afraid that we don’t have such leaders in this moment or maybe I cannot see them, because almost the same political elite is now in the top positions, if not the same people with the same ideology. Your generation has a very difficult legacy. I really wish you to work through and to find the way for healing after this long trauma..."
- Transcript Extracts
How to Learn about Srebrenica
Dr Dubravka Stojanović, Historian
"...In the end, it is extremely important to understand how propaganda works, showing what people at that time knew or did not know about what happened in Srebrenica, how information began coming out, how the news came late, how the crime was being covered up and how thanks to the effort of people who dissented it slowly began to emerge. I think this lesson about propaganda, about the role of the media is extremely important in learning history because it can teach today’s students how to reject it next time, to recognize propaganda. This is especially important today, when they have the internet and they continually get hundreds of facts each day, and our students are not skilled in understanding this information and are therefore much more prone to misinformation than ever before.
If we were to learn about Srebrenica today, that would first mean that we have abandoned the programs for which we entered the war. It would mean that we took the right turn, that we seriously rejected it and are now able to deal with that. Again, if Srebrenica was taught, this would mean that our education system has changed its purpose. As I often say, our education, especially the teaching of history, is very similar to military boot camp. It is as if students are being trained for some future wars, and in any case if not wars, trained to become the so called "masses".
Our education is not creating citizens, it is not teaching students to think critically, to think for themselves. I believe that if we introduced the teaching of Srebrenica in schools, it would be a critical re-examination of the past, which would bring an entirely different attitude towards the present..."
- Transcript Extracts