Memory as resistance: An eyewitness account from Srebrenica

“Srebrenica means going to Potocari: remaining silent, looking at the white graves, and letting the lesson of history, which everyone talks about loudly, be explained through silence,” writes Mevludin Hrnjić in his book Witness to the Genocide of Srebrenica – Chronology of Memory, Prishtina, published by Dituria islame, 2025. This book not only recounts individual suffering, but also reflects systematic violence against an entire people – violence that is dramatically similar to the experience of Albanians in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999. The case of Srebrenica is the only mass crime in post-war Europe that has been legally defined as genocide. However, Serbia succeeded in avoiding being held responsible for the genocide before the ICJ.

Srebrenica and the end of European pacifism

The end of the Cold War brought hope for peace and democracy in Eastern Europe, but in the southeast, in the former Yugoslavia, a new wave of bloody wars began. The climax of these conflicts came in July 1995 with the Srebrenica massacre, in which Bosnian Serb troops under Ratko Mladić killed over 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in an area declared “safe” by the UN.

This crime, the largest in Europe since World War II, shocked the world and represented a catastrophic failure of the international community and the pacifist policies of the UN. The massacre in this small town, which until then had been virtually unknown to most of the world, changed everything in the summer of 1995. As American diplomat James Pardew writes in his book Peacemakers: American Leadership and the End of Genocide in the Balkans, the shocking evidence of executions, killing fields, and mass graves sparked deep outrage among the international public and highlighted the UN’s serious failure to stop these atrocities against the Bosnian civilian population. Meanwhile, former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer admits that this event changed his pacifist convictions and emphasizes the need for international intervention to prevent crimes against humanity.  “The news of this massacre shook me to the core,” wrote former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer in his diary, adding: “I could no longer ignore the fact that in Bosnia – and thus in Europe in 1995 – the most fundamental principles of a human society were being violated in their very essence.”

The Srebrenica massacre was not an isolated act, but part of a well-considered strategy by the Serbian leadership to create a “Greater Serbia.” This strategy was based on the ideology of the infamous 1986 Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences. This document, written by high-ranking scientists and politicians, legitimized Serbian nationalism and denied the statehood of Bosnia and Kosovo.

The crime in Srebrenica was portrayed by Serbian propaganda as revenge for the Ottoman past, with the role of victim being used to justify ethnic cleansing. This ideology, which emerged in the late 1980s and was supported by Milosevic’s party, led to wars in Croatia, Bosnia, and ultimately Kosovo.

The evidence, documents, and wiretaps of the Hague Tribunal reveal a deliberate plan to divide Bosnia and expel Bosniaks from the territories claimed by the Serbs.

Thirst, hunger, and exhaustion on the road to hope along the “road of death”

“Crowds of people throng the streets and alleys. Information is circulating that Commander Rupert Smith has arrived at UNPROFOR headquarters, that the attacks and advances of the Chetniks will cease, and that Srebrenica will survive. Sometime around noon, all hopes were dashed when the Chetniks began shelling and shooting from all positions around the city and continued to advance until they finally captured the enclave of Srebrenica,” writes Imam Mevludin Hrnjić in his memoir “Witness to the Genocide in Srebrenica – Chronology of Remembrance” about the horrific days of July 11, 1995, when Serbian forces committed the first genocide in Europe since 1945.

It was the day when tens of thousands of people in Srebrenica eagerly awaited NATO intervention to stop the advance of Serbian forces on the eastern Bosnian town. For this reason, the UN troops stationed there remained somewhat optimistic. But NATO aircraft never appeared in the sky. According to Hrnjić, that day marked the beginning of Srebrenica’s death sentence.

Books such as this one by Imam Mevludin Hrnjić, which draw on personal experiences of surviving wartime, are not only historical evidence; they are also an indictment of crimes that have been concealed and denied, and an attempt to preserve collective memory from oblivion. Imam Mevludin Hrnjić’s chronicle also falls into this category—a harrowing testimony to the extent of the Serbian genocide in Srebrenica, but also a profound reflection on faith, resilience, and humanity in dark times.

This book is not only a story of individual suffering, but also a reflection of systematic violence against an entire people—violence that dramatically resembles the experience of Albanians in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999. With his authentic accounts, Hrnjić invites us to confront a painful chapter in the history of Balkan fascism, which unfortunately remains an unpunished doctrine and is even interpreted as heroism by the perpetrators of this crime, unprecedented since the Holocaust.

The case of Srebrenica is the only mass crime in post-war Europe that has been legally classified as genocide. However, Serbia managed to avoid being held responsible for genocide before the ICJ. This was achieved through an agreement reached by former Hague Tribunal prosecutor Carla Del Ponte with Belgrade in May 2003, when she granted Belgrade’s request to protect parts of the Supreme Defense Council’s documents with the approval of the Hague Tribunal. This prompted the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its 2007 ruling to acquit Serbia of responsibility, even though it recognized that genocide had been committed in Bosnia.

Clear parallels to the reality in Kosovo in 1998–1999

Bosnian imam Mevludin Hrnjić has written a harrowing chronicle of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina—an autobiographical account documenting his survival during the Serbian genocide in Srebrenica, one of the most serious events to have occurred in Southeast Europe since the Holocaust. Drawing on personal experiences, Hrnjić’s testimony traces his life from his training as an imam to his unwavering commitment to religion, humanity, and human dignity, even under the most inhumane conditions.

His narrative is not only a personal account, but also historical evidence that illustrates the systematic nature of the violence and the goal of ethnic extermination. Many of the events, place names, and experiences described by Hrnjić bear striking parallels to the reality in Kosovo in 1998–1999. In both cases, Bosniaks and Albanians were confronted with the same state aggressor and a similar strategy: the expulsion of their ethnic and cultural presence from the territories that the Serbian regime wanted to annex or Serbianize.

This book covers a wide range of events that mark Imam Mevludin’s journey. With profound authenticity, he paints a picture of the brutality of the Serbian state and paramilitary formations, whose goal was the systematic extermination of all Bosniaks and Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Particularly moving is the description of the 80-day survival phase in which Hrnjić walks the “road of death” to reach the free territory controlled by Bosnian forces. He suffers the same fate as thousands of men and boys who set out from Srebrenica through the mountains and forests of Kamenica and Pobugja – a march that ended in mass graves for many. On this dramatic journey, the two Korans he carried with him became silent witnesses to the genocide, but also to his salvation.

Reading Imam Mevludin Hrnjić’s book brought to mind Elie Wiesel – the Jewish Holocaust survivor and author of the shocking work “Night” – and Eliott Behar, the former Canadian prosecutor at the Hague Tribunal and author of the book “Tell the World.” All three, in their own way, have transformed the experience of pain and confrontation with genocide into an act of universal remembrance and awareness.

Elie Wiesel, author and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is one of the most powerful voices of the 20th century who has testified to the horrors of the Holocaust. In an interview with the New York Times in 1997, he stated:

“I appeal to every survivor I meet. At first it was very difficult for many of them, but now they are writing. You cannot imagine how many there are.”

This call not to remain silent also gives meaning to Hrnjić’s statement – a courageous statement that breaks through the wall of denial.

The similarities between Elie Wiesel and Imam Mevludin Hrnjić are obvious and significant: Both have written personal accounts of crimes against humanity, describing the tragic loss of family members, the destruction of faith, and the struggle for survival in the face of systematic violence. Their books are not simply individual narratives, but powerful acts of collective memory and moral consciousness aimed at educating future generations so that such atrocities are never repeated.

Furthermore, Imam Mevludin Hrnjic’s account is more direct, documentary, and concrete, free of stylization and exaggeration—a personal testimony that does not aim to reflect abstractly on evil, but rather to expose it through facts, experiences, and vivid descriptions. This makes his book a necessary work not only for remembrance, but also for justice.

Hrnjić describes in harrowing detail the brutal execution of members of his community and his closest family members, revealing not only the personal tragedy but also the collective dimension of the genocide. Through his testimony, he documents how the survivors dealt with the physical and psychological consequences of this tragedy, which was planned and deliberately carried out by the Serbian political, religious, and military elite. His account is written in simple and empathetic language, which makes the book more relatable, touching, and accessible to the reader.

Memory as an act of justice and honor

Beyond personal narrative, Hrnjić emphasizes the importance of preserving collective memory and the need for justice. He helps us understand how much harm hatred, intolerance, and hegemonic ideologies, such as those built around the myth of “Greater Serbia,” can cause. This book is therefore not only a testimony of survival, but also a moral act against forgetting and denial.

In this context, Elie Wiesel is also remembered, who considered forgetting to be a second form of death for the victims. For him, remembrance was an act of justice and honor: “Forgetting is the deepest form of denial.” If the world forgets, if societies close their eyes to the past, then the suffering of millions of people was in vain. This is precisely why Hrnjić’s testimony is a valuable contribution not only to the documentation of genocide, but also to the development of a culture of responsibility and reflection.