Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 11 July this year, the 29th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide will be marked. This day is always hardest and heaviest for Bosnians, as it represents one of the darkest chapters in modern history: the events that, horrifically, occurred in Srebrenica. This month, we remember all the 8,372 Bosnians, mainly men and boys, brutally massacred on 11 July 1995, in what was later, rightfully, deemed a genocide by the International Court of Justice. When one thinks about this terrible and tragic event, it's inconceivable to believe what people are capable of doing to one another because of who they are. What fuelled Srebrenica was discrimination—a whole people demonised and treated as less than human because of their ethnicity and, principally, religion.

Unfortunately, these black marks still exist in our world today. On 11 July, think of the mothers, because there is nothing that can prepare any mother for the news that many of them would have heard in that terrible time: that they had lost their husband or their sons, or both, and that they may have been lying somewhere in nameless graves.

The youngest victim of the Srebrenica genocide was two-day-old Fatima Muhic, her tiny coffin buried alongside nearly 8,000 other graves at the Potocari memorial centre. This year, the United Nations has taken a significant step, acknowledging the gravity of this atrocity by declaring 11 July as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica. I wish to emphasise to Bosnian communities in New South Wales and across the country that the Australian government took seriously the step to support the resolution to designate an official day, 11 July, to honour the memory of the victims and remember their suffering.

Each year, the Australian Bosnian-Herzegovinian Cultural Association holds commemorations for the Srebrenica genocide. This is an incredibly crucial moment to help those still traumatised by the events of Srebrenica. Many managed to flee somehow and were then given the opportunity to rebuild their lives in our great country. Their tireless work means that the memories of those who lost their lives are kept alive and honoured. We owe it to the victims of Srebrenica and other crimes against humanity that we witness before our eyes to protect and do whatever we can to speak up and protect future generations from such horrors.