Press
Release
The United Nations and Genocide: On behalf of
the Mothers of Srebrenica, German human rights activists build a "Pillar
of Shame" against United Nations' arrogance
Berlin/Sarajevo, 13.05.2010
The 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide will
be marked by a new form of a memorial: made of 16,744 shoes
(representing the 8,372 victims), two gigantic letters, 'U' and 'N',
cast in shimmering white concrete will be erected against the arrogance
of the United Nations.
"The Pillar of Shame will serve as a metaphor for the
immense betrayal of the United Nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and as
a warning to all future co-workers of the United Nations," says Philipp
Ruch, the project initiator. "Looking on the international level, there
has been much too little discussion about what the United Nations
Organisation permitted to happen in Bosnia and Herzegovina."
The two letters will be penetrated by three monumental
bullet holes with real shoes found in mass graves embedded in them. The
project has for the last year been prepared in Germany, and will
officially be supported by the Memorial Centre Potocari-Srebrenica, as
well as by four associations established by, and joining together the
survivors of the Srebrenica genocide (Srebrenicke majke, Udruženje Majki
Srebrenice i Podrinja, Žene Srebrenice, and Pokret Majke enklava
Srebrenica i Žepa).
Axel Hagedorn, legal representatives of 6,000
survivors of the genocide that have been running a legal process against
the United Nations Organisation since 2007, complains, "Despite
continuous media reports about Srebrenica, the mothers of Srebrenica
still have not successfully reached out to the world with their cries
against the UN. This cry against such an exorbitant injustice and
arrogance of the UN leadership needs to be symbolised. The Pillar of
Shame should serve as the symbol of outcry by the mothers of
Srebrenica." In 1999, Kofi Annan depicted Srebrenica as "the biggest
shame in the history of the United Nations".
The actual location of the monument will be determined
by the mothers of Srebrenica. They will also select the names of
individuals, who will be shamed by the Monument. With this regard, a
special committee of the mothers of Srebrenica will be appointed by the
Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV), the second biggest human rights
organisation in Germany. "The people of Bosnia should not be left alone
in their suffering; and their suffering should not be increased any
further," says Tilman Zülch, president of the Society for Threatened
Peoples. "The country has since the end of the war been denied freedom
and further development. This has to this day been enhanced by false
decisions on the parts of the United Nations and the European Union." |