Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This July marks the 22nd anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide. As 11 July is designated as the memorial day, I welcome that we are marking this day with statements in this House. I hope it will happen every year. I also call on the Government to create a national Srebrenica memorial day. That is something that happens in other countries and it would be beneficial if it happened here.

The appalling massacres have been recognised as genocide by the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY. It is very welcome that the Dáil is today formally remembering the more than 8,000 Muslim Bosnians, or Bosniaks, who were brutally executed by paramilitaries and units of the Bosnian Serb army, under the command of General Ratko Mladic.

I understand that the theme of the Srebrenica commemorations in 2017 is gender and genocide. In addition to those men and boys killed, thousands of women, children and elderly people were forcibly deported and a large number of women were raped and impregnated. Today, we must acknowledge the courage and strength of Bosnian women who have been at the forefront of efforts to ensure the world remembers Srebrenica, including Bosnian women now living in Ireland.

At the ICTY, 38 former members of the Bosnian Serb police force and army have been sentenced to a total of more than 400 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity in Srebrenica. The acts of genocide in Srebrenica and other crimes have also been laid out in Mladic's trial in the tribunal and a verdict is expected in November. Sadly, many more perpetrators of mass killings of Bosniaks in the area have not been prosecuted. The mass killings include people desperately fleeing from Srebrenica to safety in Tuzla, a town which was under the control of the Bosnian army in July 1995. I met one such survivor here today.

The UN has called the Srebrenica genocide "the greatest atrocity on European soil since the Second World War". After the Holocaust and genocide carried out by the Nazis, Europe said never again, yet just 22 years ago that act of genocide occurred on European soil. Europe and the world failed the people of Srebrenica. When we say never again now, we must mean it. While we remember that appalling act of genocide we must also commit to continue to challenge and oppose any attempts to minimise or deny the genocide that took place at Srebrenica and oppose the glorification of war criminals. I do not think anyone has mentioned the fact that to this day, many look up to the war criminals. We must also reconcile the fact that this genocide took place in a UN-designated safe area and that Dutch soldiers acting as UN peacekeepers failed to stop the capture of the town and the resulting genocide.

I commend Bronagh and Mirza Ćatibušić who have continually raised Srebrenica and other issues with my office. They worked tirelessly, along with other members of the Bosnian community in Ireland, to ensure that Srebrenica was remembered and marked in Ireland over the years. Bronagh, Mirza, and other members of the Bosnian community in Ireland are in the Visitors Gallery tonight. I am sure it is an emotional day for all of them and for Bosnians living throughout the world.

The Minister said Ireland accepted more than 500 refugees from Bosnia. I thought 1,000 Bosnian refugees were accepted through a resettlement programme established in response to the war in Bosnia in the 1990s. Many of those who came to Ireland had been ethnically cleansed from parts of eastern Bosnia, including Srebrenica. Some of them had survived the horrors of the Srebrenica genocide. Today, we remember all the loved ones of members of the Bosnian community in Ireland who were killed in the war. Their experience of surviving conflict and overcoming trauma and their successful integration is an inspiration today as Ireland again accepts refugees from war-torn countries such as Syria.

It is estimated that 1,000 people dumped in mass graves are still missing. International funding to identify the victims is not secure and Ireland needs to raise its voice in support of that important work. Perhaps the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, would follow through on that work and securing the funding needed to support it.

Today, we remember all the victims and survivors of the Srebrenica genocide. In concluding, I refer to Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It defines genocide as:

...any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

That is genocide.

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