What have people learned from the Bosnia genocide?

Answer 1

I don't know what ALL people have learned but I do know from the prospective of my Grand-Niece and Nephew. They are the first generation born in America from the Bosnian genocide.

Their Father, Uncle, and Grandmother are Bosnian refugees from the war.

Their Father and Uncle had to hide underground, aided by their Mother, on route to Austria. Fully knowing they were targeted to be killed simply because they were Bosnian boys.

They made it to Austria, and then to America.

The Children live with me, I care for them...they do not yet know what "Bosnian" means to them, except in the cultural sense.

The Father had also lived with me for a time. He has the lasting effects.

One effect I've noticed with both he and his brother (also including male cousins) is that they overly and overtly express their male prowess, their ego's are so utterly protected as to seem what I'd call "hard". They find as many fights as they can in Bosnian areas of the city...not with other Bosnians but with the Serbians who live in areas near their community and frequent the same clubs, outdoor parks, etc...

Unfortunately many gangs have developed since the late 90's. Both Bosnian and Serbian. I can't recall the names of these gangs my Nephew gave me, but I know at least one symbol they are required to tattoo on their necks, which is a snake.

I love my Nephew I know the internal violence he feels is a result of being a victim, as result of having to scrub the brains of his small male cousin off the bricks of his home in Bosnia. Of passing mass graves of little boys on their flight out of their homeland,

Of playing with deployed bombs in the streets outside his own home...bomb discard and scraps of war were the toys of young boys (including landmines)

Of he and his brother, hiding with their Mother and Grandmother in their home without food or electricity being forced to watch the brutal rape of his Mother by a Serbian soldier...too scared to scream, too little to help.

His Father slipped in unnoticed and sliced the throat of the attacker.

These are the monstrosities they had to witness.

Their Father was a Bosnian soldier he remained in the Country while his family fled.

My Nephew has PTSD, he will not get help because his ego as a human has been so wounded already, he's afraid to get help because that may mean to him that he's once again "weak".....in which I've told him many times how strong he and his family are for surviving! for walking hundreds of miles in the night, sleeping in the day, without food -to find refuge...and ultimately having two beautiful Bosnian/Amer. children!!!!

who will never live a life of genocide.

I just hope the children will never have to experience emotionally the historical/cultural grief of the atrocities that their paternal family had to endure.

As far as what everyone else has "learned" ...I certainly hope something so much deeper than the "headlines" on the News.

Just look to the refugees, they need to get their stories out to the world, in order to eventually heal. They'll never fully bury the pain, but maybe with some serious help from the rest of the world...opening up the horrible reality, that this didn't happen 60-some years ago (as if that wasn't a horrid enough wake-up call) this genocide happened almost yesterday! then maybe the the word itself "genocide" will never be used in any sense ever again.