Presented by Academy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in collaboration with Museum of Jewish Heritage – A living Memorial to the Holocaust and advisory support from Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs 

“Genocide and Aftermath: Rationalizing the Process of Truth and Reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina” a commemorative and policy development event that commemorated the tenth anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide, a modern human tragedy and a first genocide in Europe after Holocaust. 

The event took place on July 13, 2005 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM at Safra Hall, Museum of Jewish Heritage- A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, 36 Battery Place, Battery Park City, New York, NY 10280

This commemorative event raised awareness of the Srebrenica genocide and tragic suffering of Bosniak population half a century after European Holocaust.

Panel on Genocide brought together a working group of policy specialists, policy makers, academics, public officials, civic society opinion makers, and members of the diplomatic community with the purpose to raise awareness about the group pathology and psychology of the perpetrators, with a look toward future prevention.

Panel sensitized the public to the crimes of genocide and assessed future actions necessary to provide a workable Truth and Reconciliation platform that would help both B-H and the international community to pursue a fully rationalized reconciliation process over the next five years.

Edited transcript of the event is available at Carnegie Council on Ethics and international Affairs website

Commemoration Participants

Keynote Speaker and Panelist:

Dr. Charles Ingrao
"Accepting the Truth: Why is it so Difficult?...so Necessary?”
Charles Ingrao is Professor of History at Purdue University and Editor of The Austrian History Yearbook. Although he has published seven books on the history of early modern and modern central Europe, he has devoted himself since July 1995 to studying contemporary nationalism and ethnic conflict throughout the region. During that time he has made 25 research trips to the war zones of Slobodan Milosevic, delivered over eighty public lectures to academic, governmental and military audiences, and been a regular commentator for print, radio and television media, including The News Hour with Jim Lehrer (PBS). Over the past five years he has directed the Scholars' Initiative, a consortium of over 250 scholars from 27 countries dedicated to confronting those major controversies that continue to divide the peoples of the former Yugoslavia.

Panel Moderator

Mr. Roy Gutman
Roy Gutman is a Newsday’s Foreign Editor who has reported on international affairs for more than three decades. From 1989 to 1994, he served as the Newsday European bureau chief, reporting on the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, the unification of Germany, and the violent disintegration of Tito's Yugoslavia. His reports on "ethnic cleansing" in Bosnia-Herzegovina, including the first documented accounts of Serb-run concentration camps, won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting (1993), the George Polk Award for foreign reporting, the Selden Ring Award for investigative reporting, the Hal Boyle award of the Overseas Press Club, the Heywood Broun Award of the Newspaper Guild, a special Human Rights in Media award of the International League for Human Rights, and other honors. In 2002, he was a co-winner of the Edgar Allen Poe award of the White House Correspondents' Association, and in 2003, the National Headliners First Prize for Magazines.

Panelists
 

Dr. Elazar Barkan, Panelist
Elazar Barkan is professor of history and cultural studies at Claremont Graduate University in Los Angeles, California, and the director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation. Barkan's research interests focus on the role of history in contemporary society and politics, with particular emphasis on the response to gross historical crimes and injustices. He is the author recently of The Guilt of Nations: Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices (2000); Claiming the Stones/Naming the Bones: Cultural Property and the Negotiation of National and Ethnic Identity, (an edited volume with Ronald Bush, Getty, 2003); Taking Wrongs Seriously: Apologies and Reconciliation (an edited volume with Alexander Karn, Stanford University Press, forthcoming)

H.R.H. Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein, Panelist
H.R.H. Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein is Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to the United Nations. From June 1996 – June 2000, the prince served as Jordan’s Deputy Permanent Representative during which period he has undertaken a number of special responsibilities relating to issues of international justice, women’s development and United Nations peacekeeping. In September of 2002, Prince Zeid was elected the first President of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, governing body of the International Criminal Court, a post he will hold for a three-year term. He is also the Chairman of the Consultative Committee for the UNDP Fund for Women (UNIFEM), and is, “Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in UN Peacekeeping Operations”. In February 2004, the prince was appointed by his government as Jordan’s representative, and head of delegation, before the International Court of Justice in the matter relating to the wall being built by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Prince Zeid has also chaired the informal working group on elements for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity – part of the work of the Preparatory Commission for the International Criminal Court, and was the chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Scope of Legal Protection under the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel. In the spring of 2004, the prince also chaired the “Panel of Experts for the UN Secretary-General’s Trust Fund to Assist States in the Settlement of Disputes through the International Court of Justice”, in the matter relating to boundary dispute between Benin and Niger. Prince Zeid holds a B.A. in political science from The Johns Hopkins University and Ph.D. in history from Cambridge University (Christ’s College). He has served in the Jordanian military, and was a political affairs officer with UNPROFOR in the former Yugoslavia from February 1994 to February 1996.

Dr. Mirza Kusljugic, Panelist
Dr. Mirza Kusljugic is the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations. From 1998 to 2001 he served as an elected member of the parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina, House of Representatives. From 1998 to 2000 he was a member of the Municipal Council of Tuzla Municipality. Prior to entering politic and the diplomatic service, Ambassador Kusljugic served as dean of the University of Tuzla, School of Electrical Engineering and as associate professor, Theory of Systems.

Donald S. Hays, Panelist
Donald S. Hays is currently assigned to the U.S. Institute for Peace, until recently served as the Principle Deputy High Representative in Bosnia Herzegovina (2001-2005) with a special focus on Economic matters and local self governance. Prior to that assignment he served as Ambassador for UN reform at the U.S. Mission to the UN (1999-2001) From 1996-1999 Ambassador Hays was charge first with the oversight of the European Bureau and then later with the Department of State's response to the threat posed by international terrorism as Director of Management Policy and Planning. Ambassador Hays has served in Saigon, Cyprus, the Soviet Union, Pakistan and West Africa (Freetown and Dakar) during his 30 year career. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, he served with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam (1968-70) He received his BA in Political Science from the University of California Santa Barbara, and did post graduate work at both Georgetown University and later at Princeton University. Awards: (US Military) Bronze Star w/oak leaf cluster, Army Commendation Medal, Air Medal, Vietnam Service and Vietname Campaign Medal; (Department of State) Presidential Distinguished Service Award, State Department Distinguished Honor Award , Department of State Superior Honor Award , Senior Performance Pay Award, and Performance Pay Award