The worst massacre on European soil since World War II, the massacre in Srebrenica, was a watershed event in the history of the Balkan wars and the state of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Today, 20 years later, the country still faces formidable political and economic challenges, including ethnic divisions.
On July 8, the Voice of America will present a special panel to discuss the significance and implications of the Srebrenica genocide. Titled “Bosnia: 20 years after Srebrenica” the panel will examine the events of that time both in historical terms and in the context of the country’s journey toward the future.
The panel will include: the Honorable Stephen Rapp, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, head of the Office of Global Criminal Justice at the U.S. Department of State; Ambassador Kurt Volker, Executive Director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership and former Ambassador to NATO; Professor Daniel Serwer, Johns Hopkins University, director of the Conflict Management Program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS); and Tanya Domi, professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and an affiliate faculty member of the Harriman Institute. The moderator will be Dzeilana Pecanin Allison, a seasoned journalist and Chief of VOA’s Bosnian Service.
On Tuesday, the UN Security Council will vote on a resolution commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre. “My message to the people of Bosnia is that we will never forget," US Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, told VOA in an interview ahead of the resolution vote. Power was a young journalist in the Balkans when the massacre took place and later wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the genocide. "We will pursue justice to the end of the Earth,” Power said.
